October 27, 2016 Liverpool, UK and New York, USA – Global experts from public health accelerator Vital Strategies will share their expertise across topics including air pollution and environmental health, urban health, tuberculosis, tobacco control and the use of mass and social media at the 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health.
Vital Strategies works with in-country leadership in low- and middle-income countries to help tackle some of the most difficult health problems in the world, aiming to drive long-term improvements through new policies, prevention strategies and building public health systems. Since 2008, over two billion people have been exposed to more than 150 impactful communication campaigns facilitated by Vital Strategies. In the last five years, 5,100 professionals from 136 countries have received training on public health policy, communication and practice. Since 2012, Vital Strategies – in conjunction with The Union and other partners – has worked on the implementation of the STREAM clinical trial, which is evaluating the effectiveness of shortened treatment regimens for MDR-TB.
“Our multi-disciplinary team of global experts is delighted to be here in Liverpool, sharing research and learning points from our work on public health issues across a number of low- and middle-income countries,” said Sandra Mullin, Senior Vice President, Policy, Advocacy and Communication, Vital Strategies. “At the Union World Conference, our message is clear: chronic lung conditions and non-communicable diseases share common risk factors, of which air pollution, tobacco use, physical inactivity and poor diet are major causes of morbidity and mortality. The links between these areas create an opportunity to implement proven health policies that reduce the burden of harm, so we can achieve global targets on health and development.”
See Vital Strategies public health experts at The Union Conference
Thursday 27th October:
Confronting Resistance:
- The impact of air pollution on adult and child lung health (noting that the burden of premature death, illness and disability falls disproportionately among those living in households without access to clean household energy and in low and middle income countries) – Dr Thomas Matte, Vice-President for Environment Health, Vital Strategies
The changing landscape of tobacco control:
- Using mass media to support the implementation of tobacco control policy in Viet Nam (where more than two-thirds of smokers recalling the campaign, reported making a quit attempt) – Sandra Mullin, Senior Vice President, Policy, Advocacy and Communication
- Cost-effectiveness of the “Sponge” tobacco control campaign in Moscow (estimated to have saved more than US$12 million in medical expenditure attributed to smoking) – Irina Morozova, Associate Director, Policy, Advocacy and Communication, Vital Strategies
Drugs, vitamins, valves: diversity of clinical trials:
- Challenges in supply of investigational medicinal products for MDR-TB clinical trials – Jan Komrska, Pharmacist, Research Division, Vital Strategies
Friday 28th October:
Global burdens, global opportunities: climate change, lung health and NCDs?:
- How urbanization is affecting both climate change and health and how climate change mitigation and adaptation measures can be shaped to maximize co-benefits for NCD prevention – Dr Thomas Matte, Vice-President for Environment Health, Vital Strategies
- Diabetes, cigarette smoke and air pollution – the new social determinants of TB – Dr Neil Schluger, Senior Advisor for Science, Vital Strategies
Tobacco Packaging and Graphic Health Warnings:
- Health warnings as an integral part of health communication (including research from Bangladesh, showing benefits of aligning mass media campaigns and graphic health warnings to optimize behavior change) – Tahir Turk, Senior Advisor – Policy, Advocacy and Communication, Vital Strategies
Saturday 29th October:
- TB and mental disorders: putting the science into practice – Chair: Dr Adam Karpati, Senior Vice President, Public Health Programs, Vital Strategies
Oral Abstract Sessions:
Media communication, tobacco dependence and cessation
- Effectiveness of complementing paid social media with organic social media – an example from India
- Can social media change behaviour as part of a synergised tobacco control communication strategy? Message pre-test findings from Bangladesh
- Effects of mass media tobacco control campaigns in Indonesia
Interplay Of Tobacco Control And Broader Health Agenda
- Innovative health financing for tobacco control: the implementation and effectiveness of India’s ‘movie rules´
Smoke-free Environment:
- Evidence from an integrated mass media campaigns to support Beijing´s 100% smoke-free law
Sandra Mullin, Dr Thomas Matte and Dr Neil Schluger also participated in a symposia on Urban impact: strategies to improve lung health in cities.
For more information or to arrange to speak with any of the above public health experts, please contact Tracey Johnston on 07889 081170 or tjohnston@vitalstrategies.org or visit booth 44 in the main exhibition area, where one of our team will be happy to assist you.
About Vital Strategies
Vital Strategies envisions a world where every person is protected by a strong public health system. Our team combines evidence-based strategies with innovation to help develop sound public health policies, manage programs efficiently, strengthen data systems, conduct research, and design strategic communication campaigns for policy and behavior change. Vital Strategies is an affiliate of The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union). To find out more, please visit vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat.