A Global Mission
The health challenges of today present complex cultural, economic, political and geographic issues. To tackle these challenges the global community requires scientific innovations and collaborations from among clinical, research, and educational professionals.
At the Center for Global Health, we stand at the center of this network – activating people and programs willing to improve the health and well-being of millions around the world. Our work includes implementation of clinical training programs, infrastructure development for the prevention and treatment of communicable diseases; and corporate consultation in global health education.
Learn more about our global mission
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Center for Global Health receives WHO designation
The World Health Organization identifies maternal and child health program as an international collaborating center
To learn more.
The maternal and child health division within the Colorado School of Public Health’s Center for Global Health was designated by the World Health Organization as a WHO Collaborating Center for Promoting Family and Child Health.
The division, which is a partnership between Children’s Hospital Colorado and the Colorado School of Public Health, is one of only two programs in the Americas to receive this designation in maternal and child health.
“This designation means that the center will be more actively engaged in developing transformational maternal and child health interventions and programs which can then be taken to a global scale,” states center director and CU School of Medicine professor of pediatrics and public health Stephen Berman, MD, FAAP.
With the new designation, the center’s maternal and child health division will focus on four major program outcomes in partnership with the WHO and its regional affiliate, the Pan American Health Organization:
• Assist countries in reducing health inequality and excessive morbidity and mortality among mothers, infants, children and adolescents;
• Accelerate vaccine research and implementation;
• Train vulnerable communities and countries in disaster preparedness in ways that will meet the needs of children; and
• Train doctors, nurses, midwives and other birth attendants in the Helping Babies Breathe program to reduce neonatal asphyxia.
Although the WHO designation is new the division’s faculty have a long standing involvement improving health outcomes for mothers and children around the world.
“World-class children’s hospitals extend their efforts to support the health of women and children all over the world. We’re proud that our faculty members have been major architects of several programs developed in partnership with WHO that have and are being implemented world-wide,” states Children’s Colorado President and CEO Jim Shmerling, DHA, FACHE.
The center’s maternal and child health division is co-directed by Eric Simoes, MD, professor of pediatrics, and Susan Niermeyer, MD, MPH, professor of pediatrics. Senior investigators include Edwin J Asturias, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics, and Gretchen Heinrichs, MD, DTMH, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology.
Maternal and Childhood Health
The United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development Goals identified eight of the most pressing issues and goals facing the global community – among those goals was the initiative for improving the health of women and children.
The Center for Global Health is committed to addressing the staggering number of preventive childhood deaths and diseases. In partnership with Children’s Hospital Colorado, the Center is developing a maternal and childhood health initiative.
These will include developing and testing new interventions to reduce maternal, neonatal, and child mortality rates in some of the poorest areas of the world and promote health and wellness through economic development, nutrition programs and child development interventions.
Learn more about the initiative with Children’s Hospital Colorado