The contribution of anatomic pathology to the health of women and children

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案要求支持将于2011年6月12日至16日在埃塞俄比亚阿迪斯举行的独特的哈佛继续医学教育（CME）会议，题为解剖病理学对妇女和儿童健康的贡献。会议旨在强调病理学在帮助实现联合国千年发展目标（MDG）以降低孕产妇和儿童死亡率方面的重要性。由于病理学数据/诊断不足，限制了为成功实现联合国千年发展目标制定有效战略，因此严重妨碍了对这两类死亡率的估计。撒哈拉以南非洲的产妇死亡率估计是美国的50至100倍，这些死亡率尤其难以维持。虽然缺乏可靠数据的原因很多而且很复杂，但对死亡原因的准确诊断可能是设计有效政策的一个宝贵工具。目前，非洲的解剖病理学获取和参与及其在获取准确数据方面的作用有限。缺乏参与的一个主要原因是非洲缺乏训练有素的病理学家，特别是那些受过孕产妇和新生儿病理学重点教育的病理学家。优化病理学参与的机制包括提供有针对性的教育机会，以提高诊断技能，协调工作，标准化标准，激发兴趣和促进合作。一个迫切需要的努力是鼓励非洲的医学生攻读病理学专业。我们希望通过在撒哈拉以南非洲国家埃塞俄比亚举行这次重点突出的会议，并为有经济需要的非洲病理学家和受训人员提供奖学金，来促进这些努力。通过在非洲举行会议，我们希望激发发达国家病理学家与非洲国家同行互动/合作的兴趣。我们计划为有经济负担的病理学家，特别是那些正在接受培训的病理学家提供慷慨的奖学金（全额和部分）。该课程旨在包括基于讲座的模块，主题与孕产妇和儿童的病理学和协作研讨会。我们计划利用研讨会开始开发有用的粗略模板，解剖诊断的标准化，以及发展监测技术的模式。根据事先安排，讲座和研讨会的结果将发表在病理学和实验室医学档案（见附件）。 公共卫生相关性：发展中国家和发达国家的病理学家之间的合作有着浓厚的兴趣，特别是围绕与妇女和儿童健康有关的联合国发展目标。本课程将为病理学家提供一个重点会议，以讨论与妇女和儿童健康有关的问题，特别是与孕产妇和婴儿死亡率有关的问题。该课程将获得医学教育学分，这是对出勤的额外奖励。讲座将包括那些具体的妇女和儿童的病理学，并将包括妇科，乳腺，甲状腺，感染，胎盘，胎儿，胃肠道，肺，和尸检病理学。该学院包括哈佛培训和基础的学术病理学家，并邀请来自北美和非洲其他学术机构的尊敬的病理学家。哈佛继续医学教育课程在教学和学员满意度方面有着卓越的记录。这门课程因其地点和重点而独特，如果成功，我们希望在非洲其他地点就类似主题举行一年两次的会议。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal requests support for a unique Harvard Continuing Medical Education (CME) meeting entitled The Contribution of Anatomic Pathology to the Health of Women and Children, to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia June 12-16, 2011. The meeting is designed to highlight the importance of pathology in helping meet the United Nations' (UN) Millennium Developmental Goals (MDG) to reduce maternal and childhood mortality. Estimates of mortality rates in these two categories are severely hampered by insufficient pathologic data/diagnoses limiting the development of effective strategies for success at achieving the UN MDG. These mortality rates are especially untenable in sub-Saharan Africa where the maternal mortality rate is estimated at from 50 to 100 times that of the United States. Although the reasons for the lack of reliable data are many and complicated, getting accurate diagnoses of the causes of deaths could be a valuable tool to design effective policies for improvement. Currently anatomic pathology access and involvement in Africa and its role in procuring accurate data is limited. A major reason for this lack of involvement is the scarcity of trained pathologists in Africa, especially those with the focused education on maternal and neonatal pathology. Mechanisms to optimize pathology involvement include offering focused educational opportunities to improve diagnostic skills and to coordinate efforts, standardize criteria, inspire interest, and stimulate collaboration. One desperately needed effort is to encourage medical students in Africa to pursue pathology specialization. We hope to facilitate these efforts by having this focused meeting in a sub-Saharan African country, Ethiopia, and offering scholarships for African pathologists and trainees with financial needs. By having the meeting take place in Africa, we hope to stimulate interest from pathologists in developed countries to interact/collaborate with their colleagues from African countries. We plan to offer generous scholarships (full and partial) to pathologists with financial burdens, especially those in training. The course is designed to include lecture based modules on topics related to maternal and children's pathology and workshops for collaboration. We plan to use the workshops to start to develop useful grossing templates, standardization of anatomic diagnoses, and schemas for developing surveillance techniques. By advance arrangement, the lectures and workshop results will be published in the Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (see attachments). PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: There is a strong interest in collaboration between pathologists in developing and developed countries especially around the UN Development Goals related to the health of women and children. This course will provide a focused meeting for pathologists to meet over lectures and workshops on issues relating to the health of women and children, especially as they related to maternal and infant mortality. The course will receive medical education credits, an additional incentive for attendance. Lectures will include those specific to women and children's pathology and will include gynecologic, breast, thyroid, infectious, placental, fetal, gastrointestinal, pulmonary, and autopsy pathology. The faculty includes Harvard trained and based academic pathologists and invited respected pathologists from other academic institutions in North America and Africa. Harvard CME courses have a track record of excellence in teaching and satisfaction by the attendees. This course is unique with its location and its focus, and, if successful, we hope to have a biannual conference on similar topics in other sites in Africa.