Lessons of history to inform response to today's health challenges

Posted on Tuesday 25 January 2011

The World Health Organization's Global Health Histories project, supported by the University of York, will help governments and international organisations tackle emerging global public health challenges by promoting an understanding of the history of health over the last 60 years.

The Department of History at the University of York is delighted, with the generous backing of the Wellcome Trust, to support the continued success and expansion of the Global Health Histories initiative

Dr Sanjoy Bhattacharya

With funding from Wellcome Trust, Dr Sanjoy Bhattacharya and Dr David Clayton, of the Department of History at York, will work with the World Health Organization in the development of the Global Health Histories seminar series, which is central to the project.

Dr Bhattacharya said: "The Department of History at the University of York is delighted, with the generous backing of the Wellcome Trust, to support the continued success and expansion of the Global Health Histories initiative. The seminars held in 2010 have taken the interactions between policy and academia to a new level, encouraging conversations that have had an impact on the work on both groups of speakers.

"They have also pointed to the great potential of stoking further interchanges of ideas between academic researchers and policy managers, both during the design and implementation of policy."

The series will be launched on 2 February in Geneva. During the year, a range of influential speakers will discuss issues of international importance including tobacco control, antenatal care, and childhood immunisation.