Dear At the Frontline Readers,

I hope that you all had an enjoyable summer. With the new academic year well underway, I wanted to take the opportunity to share some updates and news.

We launched our new lecture series Ground Rounds on the Future of Public Health with an impressive first month of speakers—Amy Fairchild, professor and chair of the Department of Sociomedical Sciences; Jo Ivey Boufford of the New York Academy of Medicine; and Harvey Fineberg of the Institute of Medicine—generated great attendance and, most importantly, critical discussion around important issues. Take a look at the article on Grand Rounds in this issue of At the Frontline for links to podcasts, video, and upcoming speakers. I look forward to your joining us for each of the Grand Rounds this year, as a basis for collective discussion and strategic planning.

Our faculty members continue to lead on the global health front, and I am thrilled to report on a collection of exceptional work and honors.

• Please join me in congratulating Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, professor of Epidemiology and Medicine and director of our International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs, for being named a 2008 MacArthur Foundation Fellow—an extraordinary honor for an extraordinary person.
   
• The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation African Health Initiative recently announced its 2008 Population Health Implementation and Training Partnerships planning grant recipients. Among 138 grant submissions, 11 planning grants were awarded—two of these were to Mailman School faculty members. Dr. Jim Phillips, professor of clinical Population and Family Health, received a $250,000 planning grant for a proposed project that aims to transfer Ghana’s successful MDG 4 (reduction of child mortality) community-based strategy to Tanzania and transfer Tanzania’s successful MDG 4 district health system development strategy to Ghana in an effort to test the hypothesis that the transfer of innovations will accelerate MDG 4 and MDG 5 (improve maternal health) trends in both countries.  Dr. Elaine Abrams, professor of Epidemiology and Pediatrics, received a $150,000 planning grant for a proposed project to partner with the Ministry of Health in Lesotho to support HIV prevention, care, and treatment services and strengthen integrated primary healthcare services.
   
• Dr. Ian Lipkin’s Center for Infection and Immunity was recently designated a World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Diagnostics, Surveillance, and Immunotherapeutics for Emerging Infectious and Zoonotic Diseases. This is the only academic center within the WHO collaborating center network. The designation underscores the strong recognition of the faculty members in Dr. Lipkin’s laboratory as leaders in biosurveillance and pathogen discovery.
   
• Through Dr. Allan Rosenfield and Lynn Freedman’s leadership regarding MDG 5, the Mailman School was happy to welcome First Lady Sarah Brown, wife of Great Britain Prime Minister Gordon Brown, to the School for a meeting hosted by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.  Healthcare leaders discussed the need and opportunity for American healthcare organizations to increase their level of involvement in accomplishing the reduction of maternal mortality worldwide.

I look forward to hearing your comments, questions, and ideas, and hope you enjoy this issue of At the Frontline.

Sincerely,
Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH, Dean

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