On September 28 and 29, 2023, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) held the inaugural UAB Global Health Symposium with a mission of “promoting equity in global health partnerships.” One year later, we reflect on the lasting impact of the symposium by recognizing collaborations that have seen continued success because of the event, including an ongoing partnership between UAB and Alexandria University.
We talked with two faculty members in the UAB Division of Preventive Medicine, Lori Brand Bateman, Ph.D., R.D., assistant professor, and Mona Fouad, M.D., MPH, professor and senior associate dean for Access and Engagement, Heersink School of Medicine, to learn more about UAB’s partnership with Alexandria University and how the UAB Global Health Symposium further supported its continued growth.
How did your partnership with Alexandria University originate?
Our initial partnership began in 2014 with a planning and development grant funded by the U.S.-Egypt Joint Board on Scientific and Technological Cooperation. The objective was to create a collaboration between UAB and the University of Alexandria Faculty of Medicine (UAFM), with the ultimate goal of developing research infrastructure and building capacity at the UAFM to enable the conduct of independent medical research across the translational research continuum. The planning phase focused on cancer research and risk factors, and we ultimately focused on colorectal cancer for our future research together.
Did the UAB Global Health Symposium cover topics that specifically applied to common interests in your partnership with Alexandria University?
The symposium’s topics and speakers were excellent and extremely relevant. We found the presentations on implementation science and equity in global health particularly helpful, as well as topics relating to equity including global partners in research and training/capacity building.
How did the symposium influence this partnership and its continued success?
The opportunity to meet in person with our partner from Egypt provided a space to promote synergy and future collaboration ideas. We met with our primary collaborator, Dr. Waleed Arafat, and discussed our current UAB Mary Heersink Institute for Global Health pilot project as well as future project ideas. We also connected him to our Sparkman Fellow, providing an opportunity for the student to have an in-person exposure experience in Egypt.
In addition to the symposium’s educational sessions, it provided a venue for us, and Dr. Arafat, to meet with other UAB faculty doing work in Egypt and discuss other potential points of collaboration.
Have you had any other partnerships or potential partnership opportunities come from the 2023 UAB Global Health Symposium?
Meeting with other UAB investigators doing research in Egypt during the conference was very helpful in thinking about future collaboration ideas. It also provided Dr. Arafat an opportunity to engage with potential speakers for an upcoming major conference that he was organizing, The International School of Clinical Oncology (ISCO) annual conference. The conference took place in May of 2024, and there was a contingent of UAB speakers who ultimately participated in the international event.
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The partnership between UAB and Alexandria University is one of many that flourished because of the 2023 UAB Global Health Symposium. By providing a space for global health experts to come together and engage, share ideas, and form relationships, the symposium fostered innovative thinking among professionals and created opportunities for successful collaborations to form. These collaborations will no doubt lead to impactful research and important discoveries in the realm of global health.
Follow the UAB Mary Heersink Institute for Global Health, a proud partner of the 2023 UAB Global Health Symposium, to stay up to date on announcements regarding the next UAB Global Health Symposium!