Emory Global Health Connection
Building Brides To Better Health Winter 2021/2022
Improving the Culture at a Cambodian Hospital
Since then, Calmette has undergone steady rebuilding to become a modern, technologically advanced facility that provides full-service general and emergency care, offers free services to patients who cannot pay, and serves as an educator of the next generation of physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.
Calmette has also been rebuilding something else, thanks to a collaboration with Emory University: the hospital’s culture.
Director General of Calmette Hospital Dr. Chheang Ra made a visit to Emory University in 2018 at the invitation of John and Cammie Rice. John Rice is Chair of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Committee and a trustee of the Emory University Board, and Cammie Rice is founder of anti-opioid organization Christopher Wolf Crusade and a member of Emory Global Health Institute’s Global Health Council. The intention of the visit was to explore potential opportunities for collaboration between Emory University and Calmette Hospital.
During his visit, Dr. Ra shared his goal of " changing the DNA" and building a more patient-centered care culture at Calmette. Feedback from patients made clear that many did not feel listened to or able to communicate effectively with their doctors and nurses.
“I was already deeply aware that strong improvement in communication skills—which comprises a sustainable knowledge-sharing culture and a clear positive change in the attitudes of healthcare professionals and leaders—is a major driver for complete satisfaction and long-lasting success for everyone,” Ra says.
Hacking the Hackathons
And he has earned more than $30,000 in prize money.
In March, his low-cost device that helps blind students “see” by using cloud-based AI computer vision algorithms and an intuitive haptic feedback interface won Microsoft’s Hack for Accessibility. In April, he developed an automated, low-cost device that can diagnose diseases from tissue samples. The project placed third internationally at Microsoft’s AI Hackathon.
At both of these hackathons, he was the only undergraduate student to place in the top three.
Lately his hackathon work has “specifically focused on disasters—what are the biggest problems we have in 2021?” says the Las Vegas native.
It was this focus that brought Desai to the EGHI/GT Disaster Hack in September. The virtual hackathon provides Emory and Georgia Tech students an opportunity to create novel solutions to problems caused by extreme weather and natural disasters. The goal is for student teams to develop marketable products. Teams competed for cash prizes and the opportunity to take their solution to market through Tech’s CREATE-X Startup Launch in 2022.
The theme in 2021 focused on finding solutions to address disasters and extreme weather.
Desai’s entry with partner Deepak Ramalingam, a Georgia Tech computer science major, received first prize for FireForce, a wildfire early-detection system that pairs inexpensive sensors with transmitters. If the sensors detect a possible fire, an alert to the FireForce server will dispatch an autonomous, camera-equipped drone to conduct a visual inspection. This allows small teams to monitor enormous areas.
“We thought of the biggest preventable disasters we could, outside of COVID-19, and the thing that came to mind was wildfires,” Desai says. “Hackathons like this are a great opportunity for students to stop doing a school for a bit and try solve real world problems."
Story Time: "COVID-19 Helpers"
During the COVID-19 pandemic, young school-aged children have been particularly vulnerable to anxiety and stress. EGHI wanted to help. So we invited writers and illustrators to create an eBook that would provide age-appropriate, factual, validating, and reassuring information for children ages six to nine.
“COVID-19 Helpers,” written by Beth Bacon and illustrated by Kary Lee, was crowned the winner, earning the creators a shared $10,000 prize, plus promotion of the book on the EGHI website, social media platforms, and in EGHI promotional materials.
Emory School of Medicine decided to take this a step further, printing 9,000 copies of the book and stapling it into the magazines sent to alumni.
One such alumna, Dr. Ana Maria Pimentel—who completed her residency at Emory Medical School, is the co-director of a Grady neighborhood clinic, and serves as an assistant professor of pediatrics at Emory—hopes to share copies of the book with her patients.
“I like the way the pandemic is explained in a way that is easy for young children to understand,” she says. “I would encourage the parents to read and discuss the book with their children.”
Westerberg Prize Winner Announced
In honor of potter and artist Warren Westerberg—the late spouse of founding EGHI staff member Roseanne Waters—EGHI in 2018 began offering an annual prize for members of the Emory community who create innovative works that bridge global health and the arts to inspire, initiate and support action.
The 2021 winner of the Warren Westerberg Global Health and the Arts Prize is Hannah Ranson, a Rollins School of Public Health alumna.
“This series explores the innate sense of mistrust felt by people of color that has been passed down through intergenerational trauma and lived experiences,” she says.
Suchdev Heads To Guatemala
At the end of this year, Dr. Parminder Suchdev will be taking a sabbatical from his position as EGHI’s associate director to take on a two-year assignment with the U.S. CDC’s Central America Regional Office in Guatemala City. He will continue his advisory roles with CHAMPS and the School of Medicine’s Global Health & Equity Office and return to Atlanta periodically to do clinical work. We at EGHI wish him all the best and eagerly await his return.