Happy New Year to everyone in the IH Section! 

The coming year promises to be both interesting and challenging.  The global health community is making progress towards achieving the MDGs, but it is slow.  Hundreds of millions continue to live in poverty.  Maternal mortality and morbidity rates are unacceptable.  Even areas that are seen as “more successful,” such as child health, reflect millions of preventable deaths.  From the U.S. perspective, the new Global Health Initiative represents an exciting change in the way that U.S. development assistance will be provided, but changes in the political environment cause concerns about whether the Initiative will be fully funded.

These challenges are nothing new to our membership.  We have the skills to respond to issues ranging from infectious diseases to the global human resource crisis, strengthening health systems, and advocating for human rights.  We need to continue to bring our individual skills together effectively so that our combined expertise is brought to bear on our strategic priorities.

The Section will soon complete a five-year strategic plan to provide needed direction.  We will be focusing on three priority areas in the coming year.  Firstly, we will address international health issues with more scientific rigor through our technical working groups and use the evidence base more effectively for advocacy and policy change. Secondly, we will strive to more actively engage our student and young professional members.  Finally, we will explore with our sister sections and state affiliates how to apply our knowledge of health systems and our strategies for improving health in resource poor environments to address the challenges of health reform in domestic settings.

I am looking forward to working with you all in the coming year.