Sunday, May 27, 2007

Touchdown Jo'burg


Hello from Johannesburg, South Africa. I'll be here for a month doing a pilot research project.
Where:
Johannesburg, South Africa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannesburg
About 40% of gold ever found is from this city. It will be home to the 2010 World Cup of Soccer. In one part of the city there are 2 Nobel laureates on the same street: Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. I will be working with professors from the Biko Center of Bioethics (named for an anti-apartheid martyr) at the University of Witwatersrand ("white water ridge", the name of a place where massive gold deposits were found). The school has about 25,000 students and Mandela is an alum of the law school. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_the_Witwatersrand
What:
Trying to figure out what HIV infected patients prefer: more access to the cheap drugs or less access to the more expensive drugs. This is an important question because right now only about 1 in 5 people that need drugs get any drug because of severely limited resources, the more expensive drugs are about 15 times as expensive (so for each person that gets the expensive drug 14 people can't get the cheap drug), and the health systems are making that decision without patient input now.
Why:
Interesting, socially worthy project that I can contribute to. Plus I'll get to see a bit of Africa (never been here before) and go on safari!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

you are amazing, bud. i guess that's what a 'Hahvahd' edumaction buys you.

keep on rockin' and update often.