Flagship Sites

 

 

 

Ecuador -- The program will consolidate international collaborations between UCSD and Fundacion Cimas del Ecuador (CIMAS), an academic, research and health promotion institution based in Quito, Ecuador. Through an inter-cultural and multi-disciplinary context the goals are to: 1) provide study abroad opportunities for students at UCSD focused on the social and cultural determinants of health; 2) strengthen the Local and Community Information System (SILC), an award-winning geocoded epidemiologic and anthropologic platform developed by CIMAS with close collaboration of the communities of Pedro Moncayo County, Ecuador; and 3) expand the existing research platform created by UCSD and CIMAS, by anchoring on two National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded investigations, as part of the ESPINA study regarding the associations between pesticide exposures and the mental and physical development of children and adolescents living in agricultural communities in Pedro Moncayo County, Ecuador. The program is led by Jose Ricardo Suarez, MPH, MD, PhD, Assistant professor in the Division of Global Public Health, Department of Family Medicine and Public Health.

 

 



Mexico -- As one of the busiest border crossings in the world, Tijuana is home to large populations of those most vulnerable to HIV/STI and other infectious diseases, substance use, and poor mental health outcomes. In this Flagship Project, Dr. Tom Patterson, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UCSD with over 25 year of experience in HIV prevention science, and Dr. Gudelia Rangel, Deputy General Director for Migrants Health from the Ministry of Health and the Executive Secretary of US-México Border Health Commission, Mexico Section, will lead a multidisciplinary team with Dr. Brooke West, of UCSD's Global Public Health Division, that embodies the expertise and commitment to research with marginalized communities needed to establish Tijuana as a world-renowned site dedicated to border health issues. Tijuana is unique as it bridges the local and the global, providing a natural laboratory for research and training on health issues that impact both sides of the US-México border. By combining their strengths in infectious diseases and mental health research, this project will foster high-impact binational collaborations that will shape programs and policies and transform health at the US-México border.

 

 


Mozambique -- Over the past ten years, UCSD has developed an innovative partnership with Mozambique’s public Universities. Beginning with a modest research infectious disease focused collaboration between UCSD and the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) in 2006, ties between UCSD and institutions within Mozambique have grown dramatically in scope and interdisciplinary breadth, including multiple areas of medicine and surgery. Beginning in 2014, leadership within UEM and the Government of Mozambique has broadened the collaborations beyond medicine to include engineering, pharmacy, oceanography/climate change and global public strategy. There is tremendous support within Mozambique to take these collaborations to the same level of intensity as that which has developed in the areas of Medicine, Public Health and Biomedical Sciences. This program sets a new bar for longitudinal multidisciplinary US collaborations with universities in lower and middle-income countries and has helped launch a new era in medical education in Mozambique and more broadly in sub-Saharan. The program is led by Robert T. Schooley, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases at UCSD, and Emilia Noormahomed, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Parasitology at UEM and Vice Chancellor of Unilurio.