Urban Health and the challenges it faces

In 2010 there was a demographical shift whereby, for the first time in history the percentage of people living in an urban environment was greater than the percentage of people living in a rural one. The health of these people is one of great importance as the health inequalities for urban residents are much more extreme than those living in the country. This is due to wider socioeconomic determinants affecting the education and income opportunities of urban communities which lead to the urban poor typically living in polluted and isolated areas.

Within cities, influences and decisions on people’s health does not just lie with the health sector but with local authority, education, urban planners, engineers and those who determine physical infrastructure and access to social and health services.  

This coupled with an increased prevalence of infectious diseases (such as HIV/AIDS, TB and pneumonia), non communicable diseases (such as asthma, heart disease, cancer and diabetes) and, violence and injury (including road traffic accidents) make it very difficult for the urban poor to stay healthy.  

 The severity and magnitude of these issues cannot be easily addressed, which is why international collaboration and knowledge exchange is fundamental to public health enhancements. 

The International Conference on Urban Health (ICUH) offers the perfect forum for such interaction. The 11^th International Conference on Urban Health will take place between the 4^th and 7^th March 2014 in Manchester, United Kingdom.

For more information on ICUH 2014 visit https://www.icuh2014.com/ or www.facebook.com/icuh2014.

You can also follow ICUH and find out more about urban health problems on twitter at www.twitter.com/icuh2014/  

ICUH 2014 Speaker Profiles: Professor Ilona Kickbusch

www.icuh2014.com is happy to announce member of the Careum Foundaton management board and Director of the Global Health Programme at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Professor Ilona Kickbusch as a special guest speaker at the conference next March (4^th – 7^th).

Professor Ilona Kickbusch graduated in 1981 from the University of Konstanz, Germany, with a PhD in political science. After joining the World Health Organisation in 1981, she was appointed to lead the Global Health Promotion Programme, followed by senior positions at the regional and global level of the organisation. She then went on to join Yale University in 1998 to head the new Global Health Program at the Yale School of Public Health. On returning to Europe in 2005, she took up senior positions as chairperson of the World Demographic & Ageing Forum, St Gallen, director of the Global Health Programme, at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva and also became chair of Global Health Europe in 2009.

In Switzerland, she serves on the executive board of the Careum Foundation, “one of the leading institutions for future-oriented issues relating to education in the healthcare sector”, a foundation that educates and facilitates dialogue across all areas of health care.  She also regularly teaches at several academic institutions including the University of St. Gallen (HSG), Switzerland.

Professor Ilona Kickbusch is also advisor to organisations, government agencies and the private sector on policies and strategies to promote health at a national, European and international level. Her work has been widely published and is a member of several advisory boards in both the academic and health policy areas. She has received many awards throughout her career, including an Honorary Doctorate from the Nordic School of Public Health in Sweden and the Andrija Stampar Award and medal for lifelong distinguished service to public health awarded by the Association of European Schools of Public Health (ASPHER).

She is a true public health leader with a deep commitment to global responsibility, the empowerment of people and Health in All Policies (HiAP). She can be regarded as a key driver of many important Public Health developments.

For a full list of all Professor Ilona Kickbusch’s career highlights follow the link: http://www.ilonakickbusch.com/kickbusch-wAssets/docs/Kickbusch_CV.pdf

You can hear Professor Ilona Kickbusch talk about her work and distinguished career at ICUH 2014 (4^th – 7^th March). Registration is now open at http://www.icuh2014.com/Home/RegCard or via our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/icuh2014 and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ICUH2014

ICUH 2014 Speaker Profiles: Professor Trevor Hancock

www.icuh2014.com is pleased to announce Professor and Senior Scholar at the new School of Public Health and Social Policy at the University of Victoria and co-founder of WHO’s Healthy Cities and Communities Movement, Professor Trevor Hancock, as a special guest speaker at the conference next March (4^th – 7^th).

Professor Trevor Hancock received his medical training at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London, England, graduating in 1973, and worked as a family physician in rural New Brunswick and in a community health centre in Toronto before obtaining a post-graduate degree in community health and epidemiology at the University of Toronto in 1980.  He was an Associate Medical Officer of Health for the City of Toronto from 1981 - 86, and from 1986 - 2002 he was an independent consultant. He also held a part-time appointment as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University, Toronto, from 1986 to 2000.

Dr. Trevor Hancock is a public health physician and health promotion consultant and is currently a Professor and Senior Scholar at the new School of Public Health and Social Policy at the University of Victoria, where he teaches graduate courses in population health promotion, public health practice, the environments of health and healthy public policy. The main focus of his work has been in the area of healthy cities and communities and he is one of the founders of the now global Healthy Cities and Communities movement. His other main areas of interest are population health promotion, public health, healthy public policy, environment and health, healthy and 'green' hospitals, health policy and planning, and health futurism. He has been described as “one of the ten best health futurists in the world”.

Over the past 25 years he has worked as a consultant for local communities, municipal, provincial and national governments, health care organizations, NGOs and the World Health Organization.  He was an Advisor and consultant to WHO Europe's Healthy Cities initiative and co-authored the original background paper for the project in 1986. He was the principal consultant for the Healthy Toronto 2000 project; wrote the proposal for and was a consultant to the Canadian Healthy Communities Network; was the founding Chair of the Ontario Healthy Communities Coalition; has consulted to healthy city/community projects in several countries (notably Sweden and the USA) as well as across Canada and has recently helped to re-establish the BC Healthy Communities Initiative. He was also the first leader of the Green Party of Canada and under his leadership, the party ran 60 candidates in the 1984 federal election.

To hear Professor Trevor Hancock talk about his work at ICUH 2014 (4^th – 7^th March) you can register at http://www.icuh2014.com/Home/RegCard or via our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/icuh2014 and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ICUH2014

ICUH 2014 Speaker Profiles: Professor Martin McKee

www.icuh2014.com is pleased to announce the president-elect of the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) and Professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Professor Martin McKee as a special guest speaker at the conference next March (4^th – 7^th).

Professor McKee qualified in medicine in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with subsequent training in internal medicine and public health. He is Professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where he is co-director of the European Centre on Health of Societies in Transition (ECOHOST), a WHO Collaborating Centre, as well as being research director of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and president-elect of the European Public Health Association.

He has published over 720 academic papers and 42 books and his contributions to European health policy have been recognised by, among others, election to the UK Academy of Medical Sciences, the Romanian Academy of Medical Sciences, and the US Institute of Medicine, by the award of honorary doctorates from Hungary, The Netherlands, and Sweden and visiting professorships at universities in Europe and Asia, the 2003 Andrija Stampar medal for contributions to European public health and in 2005 was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) ) by HM Queen Elizabeth II.

To hear Professor Martin McKee talk about European Public Health at ICUH 2014 (4^th – 7^th March) you can register at http://www.icuh2014.com/Home/RegCard or via our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/icuh2014 and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ICUH2014

ICUH 2014 Speaker Profiles: Professor Sir Michael Marmot

www.icuh2014.com is happy to announce the Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London (UCL) and Fellow of the English Faculty of Public Health Medicine, Professor Sir Michael Marmot as a special guest speaker at the conference next March (4^th – 7^th).

Professor Marmot graduated in medicine in 1965 from the University of Sydney, he went on to achieve an MPH and a PHD from the University of California, Berkley.

As well as his role at UCL, Professor Marmot has been involved in some ground breaking studies of heart disease and strokes comparing people in Japan (high stroke rates, low heart attack rates) with those in Hawaii and California. More recently he led the Whitehall studies of British civil servants which focused again on heart disease and other disease patterns, this work inspired the American documentary, ‘Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?’ a series that examined the social determinants of health. 

He has a particular interest in health inequalities and why they are caused and he is the government’s official advisor on how to identify and mitigate them. He served on the Scientific Advisory Group of the Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health chaired by former UK Chief Medical Officer, Sir Donald Acheson.

Professor Marmot was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen in 2002, for services to epidemiology and the understanding of health inequalities.  Internationally acclaimed, Professor Marmot is a Foreign Associate Member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and a former Vice President of the Academia Europaea.  He won the Balzan Prize for Epidemiology in 2004, gave the Harveian Oration in 2006, and won the William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research in 2008.

To hear Professor Sir Michael Marmot talk about his work at ICUH 2014 (4^th – 7^th March) you can register at http://www.icuh2014.com/Home/RegCard or via our Facebook pagehttps://www.facebook.com/icuh2014 and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!https://twitter.com/ICUH2014 

ICUH 2014 Speaker Profiles: Professor Ian Jacobs

www.icuh2014.com  is proud to announce Professor Ian Jacobs, The University of Manchester’s Vice President and Dean of the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences as one if its special guest speakers at the conference next March (4^th-7^th).

Professor Jacobs qualified from Cambridge University and the Middlesex Hospital specialising as a    surgical gynaecological oncologist, focusing on women’s health throughout his distinguished career. In 2005 he established the Uganda Women’s Health Initiative which he Chairs and which conducts a series of projects in Uganda including a cervical screening programme. He has also been president of the British Gynaecological Cancer Society (2001-2004) and of the European Society of Gynaecological Oncology (2005-2007) and is now: Medical Advisor to the Eve Appeal (Gynaecology Cancer Research fund) which he founded in 1985, a Patron of Safehands for Women, a consultant to Becton Dickinson, non-Executive Director of Abcodia Ltd and holds an NIHR Senior Investigator Award.

He has undertaken some groundbreaking research focusing on: genetics, epidemiology, proteomics and biomarkers in risk assessment, detection and screening for gynaecological cancer, with him and his team winning grant awards worth more than £25 million and he is considered to be one of the foremost authorities on gynaecological cancers.

As well as his roles at the University of Manchester, Professor Jacobs is also Director of the Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre (MAHSC) http://www.mahsc.ac.uk/. A partnership between the University of Manchester and six NHS organisations, including: the Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust, Salford Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust.  In a recent list, compiled by the Health Service Journal, several  MAHSC members were named as some of the most influential people in health, Including Professor Jacobs, they say their purpose is “to realise the full potential of our academic-healthcare and wealth creation capabilities, to generate real benefits for people in Greater Manchester, the UK and worldwide.”

To hear Professor Ian Jacobs talk about his work at ICUH 2014 (4^th – 7^th March) you can register at http://www.icuh2014.com/Home/RegCard or via our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/icuh2014 and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ICUH2014

You can also stay up to date on Professor Jacobs’ work and any other goings on in the Faculty of Medical and Human Science in ‘The Dean’s Update’at: http://blogs.mhs.manchester.ac.uk/dean/.