Abstract: All around the world, COVID-19 has impacted vulnerable communities disproportionately. Groups that were already vulnerable and had been suffering due to systemic inequities have had to face the dual assault of the pandemic and declining resources to support. This is particularly true for communities that are forcibly displaced from their homes such as refugees and internally displaced populations. Given that COVID-19 is not the only challenge these displaced communities face, solutions to address long-standing issues need to understand both the context and the underlying nature of the problems. In this talk, I will discuss how our research group is bringing together experts from engineering, sciences, social sciences and humanities and local partners together to improve health outcomes in refugee communities. I will also talk about ethical design of solutions, the critique of our work and scalable models of implementation.

Language English

Speaker:Muhammad Hamid Zaman is Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University. A major research theme in his lab focuses on developing solutions to improve access to quality care in low income settings, including in refugee settlements. In addition to over 130 peer-reviewed research articles, he has also authored two books for broad audiences. His first book, Bitter Pills (Oxford University Press, 2018), looks at the global challenge of substandard and counterfeit drugs. His second book Biography of Resistance (Harper Collins, 2020), is focused on global antimicrobial resistance. It is a story of science and evolution that looks to history, culture, attitudes, our own individual choices and collective human behaviour in creating one of the biggest public health challenges of our time. Professor Zaman has also developed research and education programs focusing on refugee health at Boston University. He co-founded the university wide initiative on forced displacement in collaboration with academic, public and private sector partners in Lebanon, Uganda and Colombia. Professor Zaman has written extensively on innovation, refugee and global health in newspapers around the world. His newspaper columns have appeared in over 30 countries and have been translated into eight languages. He has won numerous awards for his teaching and research, the most recent being Guggenheim Fellowship (2020) for his work on antibiotic resistance in refugee camps.

Join the lecture with zoom - https://bit.ly/34tvK89

Watch the live streaming at C4E YouTube

c4e@ucy.ac.cy Tel. 22895110