Monday, November 23, 2009
UCSF debuts a series of three films that document how UCSF is fulfilling its advancing health worldwide™ mission by focusing on partnerships in India to address HIV/AIDS, tobacco use and eye diseases.
See videos here:
UCSF’s growing involvement in global health spans more than 100 countries with more than 400 faculty members engaged in extramurally funded international research and patient care programs. Student interest in global health at UCSF mirrors the national trend with enrollment in global health education programs doubling in the past three years alone.
Chancellor Sue Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH, says she is thrilled with the scope of UCSF’s global health efforts, which address all five of her top priorities: patients and health, discovery, education, people (particularly management and diversity), and the business of UCSF.
“I want the work that we do at UCSF to matter even more for the world than it does today,” she said recently at a forum on why global health matters. “And when I think about the future and the importance of global health … it just thrills me. We’re going to make a difference in the world.”
UCSF has been making a difference on a number of important global health initiatives, Desmond-Hellmann noted, giving much of the credit for the progress to Haile Debas, MD, executive director of UCSF Global Health Sciences and former chancellor.
Debas, who is featured in one of the “UCSF in India” films, says that UCSF is building a foundation for global health that will last for generations to come.
Produced by UCSF Public Affairs, the “UCSF in India” series is part of an overall strategy to communicate UCSF’s contributions and accomplishments, including its impact and influence in global health.
In fact, the series depicts how UCSF is achieving four major directions outlined in the UCSF Strategic Plan: serving the community, translating discoveries into improved health, fostering innovation and collaboration and educating future leaders.
“I am delighted to share the ‘UCSF in India’ series of films with UCSF’s vast external and internal audiences,” says Barbara J. French, associate vice chancellor of University Relations. “The series gives extraordinary insight and brings to life UCSF’s commitment to global health care, research and education.”
Shipra Shukla, a former UCSF Public Affairs journalist who has since started her own video production company called Kathaka (a name derived from the Sanskrit word meaning storyteller), conceived of and created the three short films. All three films were shot last summer on Shukla’s trip to India and edited this year in San Francisco.
The daughter of parents of Indian descent, Shukla conducted interviews with UCSF’s experts in the fields of HIV/AIDS, tobacco education and control and ophthalmology and their collaborating colleagues and patients in India.
“During interviews with Indian health leaders, women with HIV, young cigarette smokers, and UCSF faculty and trainees working in India, one common theme resonated from each video shoot—the need to support long-term collaborative relationships to see sustained global health changes,” Shukla said. “I hope these films help tell the story of UCSF’s collaborative efforts in India.”
The three films and those featured are:
A limited number of copies of each film are available on DVD. For more information about the “UCSF in India” series, contact Lisa Cisneros, executive producer of the series and assistant director of UCSF Public Affairs, at 415/476-3256 or by email.
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