Dr. David Vlahov, the founding President of ISUH, provides a history of the ISUH and gives context for its future directions.
From its inception in 2002 and its first conference in Toronto, ISUH is intended to create a dialogue to define urban health. Over time the annual conferences provide an opportunity for members to connect. The first conference focused on inner city health in high-income countries. It is at the second meeting, held at the New York Academy of Medicine in New York City, where a conceptual framework was developed that focused on the social determinants of health that affect individual behavior. Subsequent conferences in Baltimore, Amsterdam, Nairobi, Boston, Vancouver, Manchester, and Dhaka expanded ISUH’s global perspective and reach. It was the work of ISUH that influenced WHO’s Year of Urban Health.
ISUH was seen as the only NGO that brought together researchers in urban health from around the world. The idea was for ISUH to become a mobilizing force for disseminating evidence for improving urban health. This is what lead to ISUH’s value proposition as the only global organization focused on urban health.
The future of ISUH should include a focus now on providing trans-disciplinary education, the development of a shared vocabulary for team collaboration, and the leveraging of this expertise by turning research into education. Another part of our future should include taking research into the policy arena and being advocates for populations that live in urban settings, particularly for those that are more disadvantaged – making coherent recommendations. Membership engagement through virtual regional activities and panels should be part of ISUH’s future as well.
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Dr. David Vlahov, the founding President of ISUH, provides a history of the ISUH and gives context for its future directions.
From its inception in 2002 and its first conference in Toronto, ISUH is intended to create a dialogue to define urban health. Over time the annual conferences provide an opportunity for members to connect. The first conference focused on inner city health in high-income countries. It is at the second meeting, held at the New York Academy of Medicine in New York City, where a conceptual framework was developed that focused on the social determinants of health that affect individual behavior. Subsequent conferences in Baltimore, Amsterdam, Nairobi, Boston, Vancouver, Manchester, and Dhaka expanded ISUH’s global perspective and reach. It was the work of ISUH that influenced WHO’s Year of Urban Health.
ISUH was seen as the only NGO that brought together researchers in urban health from around the world. The idea was for ISUH to become a mobilizing force for disseminating evidence for improving urban health. This is what lead to ISUH’s value proposition as the only global organization focused on urban health.
The future of ISUH should include a focus now on providing trans-disciplinary education, the development of a shared vocabulary for team collaboration, and the leveraging of this expertise by turning research into education. Another part of our future should include taking research into the policy arena and being advocates for populations that live in urban settings, particularly for those that are more disadvantaged – making coherent recommendations. Membership engagement through virtual regional activities and panels should be part of ISUH’s future as well.
Dr. Olga Lucia Sarmiento Dueñas is a member of the ISUH Board. She is a member of the Latin American Urban Health Network and is a member of the executive committee in that network. The LAC Network consists of people and researchers who live in Latin America as well as researchers in the U.S. who work on Latin American issues. She is a physician epidemiologist and analyses community interventions in Latin American that can have influence on the prevention of chronic diseases. Her work as an urban-health-influencer presents many opportunities for collaboration within ISUH. For example, her work with the Open-Streets Project. The Open-Streets Project focuses on social inclusion, social capital, inequalities, and community interventions and health.
Dr. Sarmiento Duenas sees ISUH as truly multidisciplinary and truly global and works from a perspective that shows that health is more than the health care system. To have healthy cities we need to see how other sectors can teach us how to improve the health in our cities. She is anxious to learn from other continents – e.g. the relationship between South America and other continents. Her vision for ISUH is a focus on capacity building for the new generation of academics who want to be part urban health work. Some of the ways that can help this new generation could be done through mentorship, connecting with other early career urban health thinkers, webinars, exchange opportunities, and helping build new programs in countries that have less capacity. Webinars blended within existing programs can generate interests – e.g., an ISUH webinar in one of her public health courses blended within an existing program to optimize resources.
Conversations on Urban Health - Dr Yonette Thomas
Dr. David Vlahov, the founding President of ISUH, provides a history of the ISUH and gives context for its future directions.
From its inception in 2002 and its first conference in Toronto, ISUH is intended to create a dialogue to define urban health. Over time the annual conferences provide an opportunity for members to connect. The first conference focused on inner city health in high-income countries. It is at the second meeting, held at the New York Academy of Medicine in New York City, where a conceptual framework was developed that focused on the social determinants of health that affect individual behavior. Subsequent conferences in Baltimore, Amsterdam, Nairobi, Boston, Vancouver, Manchester, and Dhaka expanded ISUH’s global perspective and reach. It was the work of ISUH that influenced WHO’s Year of Urban Health.
ISUH was seen as the only NGO that brought together researchers in urban health from around the world. The idea was for ISUH to become a mobilizing force for disseminating evidence for improving urban health. This is what lead to ISUH’s value proposition as the only global organization focused on urban health.
The future of ISUH should include a focus now on providing trans-disciplinary education, the development of a shared vocabulary for team collaboration, and the leveraging of this expertise by turning research into education. Another part of our future should include taking research into the policy arena and being advocates for populations that live in urban settings, particularly for those that are more disadvantaged – making coherent recommendations. Membership engagement through virtual regional activities and panels should be part of ISUH’s future as well.
