On the morning of April 15th, 2024, the inaugural Global Public Health Summit was co-hosted by the NYU Shanghai Center for Global Health Equity and New York University. Professors from NYU Shanghai and NYU's School of Global Public Health shared their latest research findings and engaged in in-depth discussions on climate change, urban health, and broader global public health issues. The summit highlighted educational practices and student research opportunities across NYU campuses, underscoring the importance of nurturing the next generation of public health professionals. Opening remarks were delivered by Professor Joanna Waley-Cohen, Dean of NYU Shanghai; Professor Donna Shelley, Vice Dean for Research at NYU's School of Global Public Health; Professor Lawrence Yang, Chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at NYU's School of Global Public Health; and Professor Brian J Hall, Director of the NYU Shanghai Center for Global Health Equity.
During the summit, pressing challenges were raised by the two panels:
Panel 1: Climate Change and Urban Health
- Global Warming: The continuously rising temperatures and their adverse effects on health pose significant challenges to global health. There is an urgent need for effective mitigation and adaptation strategies to address the challenges posed by the rising temperature.
- Sea Level Rise: The ongoing rise in sea levels threatens the safety of coastal communities, necessitating the advancement of resilient and secure urban development.
- Cross-Cultural Understanding of Recovery: Developing cross-cultural understanding is crucial for facilitating long-term recovery efforts following extreme events. Research ensures fair and effective responses across diverse communities.
- Aging Population and Climate Change: Addressing the vulnerability of elderly populations to the impacts of climate change is essential, considering the unique health and social needs of older adults in both China and the United States.
- Urban Population Growth: Studying interventions of varying scales in different urban settings, such as spatial and structural interventions, is crucial for mitigating the impacts of climate change.
- Role of Emerging Technologies: Leveraging emerging technologies plays a vital role in addressing public health challenges. Research can provide innovative solutions to mitigate the impacts of climate change and improve healthcare services.
- Demographic Shifts in Housing: Understanding demographic shifts in housing is essential for informing policies and interventions. These measures promote sustainable development and disaster resilience in communities facing climate change and urbanization.
Panel 2: Global Public Health
- Data Quality, Handling, Security, and Privacy: Issues with data quality, differences in data access protocols between hospitals, and the lack of universal data coding are significant factors limiting research. It is essential to ensure secure and private coordination for data acquisition and the use of universal coding to analyze and compare data from multiple facilities, forming and implementing effective intervention measures. The primary focus of inter-hospital data sharing should be to protect patient data privacy while ensuring sufficient data resources for research.
- Digital Interventions: Most digital intervention measures are currently only used for research. Strengthening partnerships to integrate research interventions into systems is necessary to provide broader applications.
- Scalability of Psychotherapy: Cultural adaptation of existing psychotherapy interventions is needed to cover a wider population and ensure scalability.
- Tobacco Epidemic: Inequalities such as gender, geographical, and socio-economic differences highlight the urgency of optimizing interventions for at-risk groups.
- Cancer Detection, Diagnosis, and Treatment: Innovative methods and strategies are needed, especially in resource-limited environments.
- Language and Communicative Practices: Their importance in treatment outcomes cannot be ignored, so healthcare professionals need to consider the language used in diagnosis and care.
- Descriptive and Prescriptive Knowledge: Essential for effective diagnosis and providing tailored treatment and care plans for patients.
- Decolonization in Global Health: It is crucial to address and resolve historical power imbalances and colonial legacies in the global health system.
Following this overview, Professor Hall emphasized global public health's role as a convening discipline, noting NYU Shanghai's interdisciplinary strengths. He outlined three key research areas, including Global Mental Health, Urban and Environmental Health, and Migration and Health, while also highlighting the newly formed Undergraduate Global Health Student Organization. Expressing hope for the event to become an annual platform for collaboration, Professor Hall also addressed the importance of decolonial approaches in global public health, Shanghai's unique opportunity to foster these approaches, and the need for a community of practice to engage in best practices.