Virtual Seminar: Promoting Health Equity in the Americas: One Community at a time

All dates for this event occur in the past.

Virtual Seminar by Maria Brunette

Associate Professor

School of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences (HRS)

College of Medicine

The Ohio State University

 

Current NIH Project: https://nihrecord.nih.gov/2018/06/15/smartphones-may-be-lifeline-diagnoses-tuberculosis

 

Join via Zoom

https://osu.zoom.us/j/92750100592?pwd=azhONS9MZ2k5RmZRYlBSRG5kcGdvUT09

Meeting ID: 927 5010 0592

Password: 788956

 

Elimination of health disparities is not only a global priority but also an effort that ought to be orchestrated via a community-based mechanism to engage and empower resource-poor communities often found in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). We have solid evidence that global health research benefits most from establishing partnerships in which academics and community stakeholders work together. Research efforts need to go outside the static boundaries of academia if the goal is to promote and sustain a culture of health locally and beyond. Any public health intervention research aiming at having an authentic community voice needs to move beyond producing and disseminating ‘translated’ versions of project tools and materials and must reach out to strategic community stakeholders to implement an equal and collaborative research process aligned with the principles of Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR). Reducing health disparities among resource-constrained communities has been the primary focus of my research agenda for the past couple of decades. Specifically, I have been designing, adapting and implementing participatory models to assess the various urgent health issues faced by these marginalized populations.

With a background in industrial and systems engineering, Dr. Brunette, Associate Professor at the School of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences at Ohio State has used and adapted the CBPR approach -facilitating community-engaged research that is respectful of the complex social, economic, and cultural context of vulnerable, voiceless populations often found in resource-constrained settings. Reducing health disparities among vulnerable, hard-to-reach populations has been the primary focus of her research agenda for the past couple of decades. Specifically, she has designed, adapted and implemented participatory models to assess the various urgent health issues faced by underserved, marginalized populations. Dr. Brunette’s area of expertise includes: 1) Designing well-functioning and culturally-relevant health systems to reach resource-poor working communities; 2) Redesigning healthcare processes and workflows with continuous improvement tools and participatory approaches; 3) Strengthening health systems via equitable collaborations with local community stakeholders -primarily in urban poor communities.