HEALTHCARE

CLASSACT LINKS TWO '73 GRADS FOR A JOINT HEALTHCARE PROJECT IN HAITI

Two ’73 Harvard doctors are bringing their nonprofit healthcare groups together for a physician training and software giveaway this summer in the country of Haiti. Dr. Ron Dieckmann and his California-based KidsCareEverywhere organization has joined forces through ClassACT with Dr. Dan Scoppetta and Grand Anse Surgery Project for the first-time exercise in the city of Jeremie, where the project is based. The project will be completely virtual and conducted with Zoom technology.

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This group would welcome connections with any interested classmates. So far we have:

• Identified at least 220 classmates with professional backgrounds in Health.

• Had initial discussions about bringing together classmates interested in international health who are experiencing challenges in delivering care because of COVID limitations and classmates who might like to discuss the long-term health implications for their patients who have had the virus.

• Initiated conversations with other Harvard classes about cross-class projects.

• Connected with ClassACT’s 2019-2020 Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program Fellow Nadia Rehman, who is now part of the team leading Pakistan’s response to COVID-19.

• Surveyed classmates' interests in health topics, including the recent general survey of all classmates.

ADDRESSING ANXIETY & DEPRESSION IN YOUNG ADULTS: LEVERAGING WHAT WORKS

ClassACT HR73 organized a discussion of this crisis and these promising opportunities. The forum was moderated by Deborah (Debbie) Winn, HR73, Ph.D., retired epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute, who was joined by panelists Eugene V. Beresin, MD, MA, Executive Director of The Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital, Professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and senior educator in child and adolescent psychiatry at MGH; Mary Lyons-Hunter, PsyD, Unit Chief of Behavioral Health at the MGH Chelsea Health Care Center; and Lucy Ogbu-Nwobodo, MD, MS, MAS, Asst. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco.

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HEALTH DISPARITIES AND THE COVID-19 VACCINE

ClassACT examineD the impacts of the virus on racial and ethnic groups and among under-served populations across the globe and within the United States. Now, with the remarkable development of multiple vaccines to mitigate the spread of Covid-19, we turned to the topic of vaccine development and distribution to explore how we may address the worldwide health disparities that the pandemic has dramatically exacerbated.

HEALTH DISPARITIES: LESSONS FROM COVID-19

This forum focused on lessons COVID-19 taught us about health disparities in America. Our distinguished panel was composed of three leading experts in medicine, healthcare delivery and government policy.

WHY AM I SO CRANKY, SAD, AND WORRIED? MENTAL HEALTH IN THE AGE OF COVID-19

For its third ClassACT ZOOM Forum on Thursday, May 7, 2020, ClassACT HR73 assembled a remarkable group of  HR73 mental health professionals to share their insights about the effects of the pandemic on our mental health and to provide suggestions for effective coping strategies. They examined the range of reactions to the unprecedented challenges of the illness itself, and its personal and societal consequences for adults and children alike: physical distancing and isolation, financial insecurities, and conflicting medical and political information. 

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THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC WITH JONO QUICK

On Monday, March 23, 2020, HR'73 classmate and Managing Director of the Pandemic Response Preparedness, and Prevention Team at the Rockefeller Foundation Dr. Jono Quick shared his insights into the current pandemic during the first ClassACT Zoom Forum.