Photo taken at the the 19th Annual Global Health Education Consortium. From left to right: Global Pulse Editors: Sujal Parikh, Matthew Rysavy, Hana Akselrod.

As the editor-in-chief of Global Pulse Journal for 2009-2010, I am honored to introduce our Spring 2010 issue.  With its theme of "Information and Communication in Global Health," we celebrate five years of evolution at GP – five years of medical students embracing the technological tools of global connectivity to tell stories and debate ideas.   We hope you enjoy the perspectives offered here by our authors, editors, and guests.

We also celebrate a much greater sentiment: the recognition that the world as we see it today is unique in the history human experience, made not so much smaller by communications technology, as deeper, and richer.  It is impossible now to imagine the field of global health without the awesome power of the World-Wide Web.  Doctors are lifelong learners.  When we have an entire world of information at our fingertips – a world of facts and perspectives and potential solutions – we have no excuses for not learning more, not trying harder.  This issue is a token of our efforts to promote continuing education and engagement within our profession on issues of global social interest.

To start, we highlight two recent technologies of interest to the global health community.  GP’s Rohan Radhakrishna interviews Hans Rosling, physician and founder of GapMinder – an acclaimed organization that interprets statistical information available in accessible forms to facilitate socially conscious decision-making.  Don't miss Dr. Rosling’s stories about epidemiology and facts-based advocacy in action!  Then, head to the Research section to read about FrontlineSMS:Medic – software that enables community health workers in rural areas to use cell phones to plug into medical information systems.  Mahmud et al. describe a field study in Malawi, where the technology was used successfully to boost communication between CHWs and hospitals and improve outcomes.  Together, these technologies exemplify innovation for empowerment in global health.   

While GapMinder and FrontlineSMS:Medic are tools for communicating distilled facts, other articles focus on tools for communicating experience – tools of language and media.  In the essay "Astan" and the poems "Rain" and "Barrio Adentro", the authors use emotion and imagery to convey meaning.  They conjure for us the experience of holding the hand of a bleeding child in Afghanistan; of listening to rain falling on a tin roof while lying under mosquito netting in Tanzania; and of struggling to diagnose a febrile patient and detangle the politics of embargo in a Cuban-run clinic in Venezuela.   Other authors combine the language of description with other elements, creating a powerful message.  In "Mpilonhle", GPeditor Paul Johnson combines the formats of photo-essay and interview to take us into the world of Dr. Michael Bennish, director of a youth development program in South Africa.  And in "Israel's Other Problem", author Daniel Wasser combines personal observation, scholarly research data, and analysis of news media, to engage the reader on an emerging controversy of identity, politics, and human rights. 

We also continue our series of interviews with prominent AMSA alums, featuring Leana S. Wen – medical resident, global health consultant, former AMSA president, and writer of the blog Two for the Road with Nicholas Kristof at the New York Times.  Stories, Dr. Wen argues, are what makes people get off the sidelines and start caring, and there is intrinsic value in global health experiences – even short ones – if we use the stories we gather to advocate on behalf of people like our patients.  We showcase a selection of such stories by authors Brian Barnett, Kristin Chapman, and Rebecca Luckett in our Reflections section; however, we also include a counter-point opinion piece by Nathan Kittle, challenging the ethics of medical student trips to low-resource settings, as well as two articles highlighting the historical exclusion of indigenous societies from public decisions affecting their health, by Gabriela Bernadett and Fiona Somers.  Finally, in our new Book Review section, I review Danielle Ofri's latest book, Medicine in Translation, which combines stories of her immigrant patients in New York City's Bellevue Hospital with the story of her daughter's birth in Costa Rica.  In this book, the unifying theme is the struggle to bridge the barriers of language, culture, and – in the case of her patients in the Survivors of Torture program – the darkest specters of inhumanity, in order to arrive at a translation of the medical experience.  It is a theme of great relevance to our work, and to this issue.

As you read the excellent articles in this issue, we hope you also notice new improvements to our website.  With our revised Mission Statement, we formally recognize the diversity of themes under the umbrella of "global health", and highlight the value that connectivity technologies add to our publication.  As one of AMSA's most popular projects over the years – be sure to read Leana Wen's comments on GP's reach! – Global Pulse is both a journal and a community.  We invite our readers and writers to become part of this community, using the website and the resources of GP and AMSA as a platform for getting connected, getting informed, and getting involved.  Join us on the GP Blog, Facebook, and Twitter, and look for us at conferences and AMSA events.

To wrap up, I would like to introduce our readers to five fantastic new editors joining GP in 2010: Aminata Cisse, John Pearson, Justin Lockwood, Rohan Radhakrishna, and Matthew Rysavy.  The energy and skills they bring to GP have been invaluable in making this issue happen.  You can browse their bios under the Editors tab, and connect around common interests on the blog.  As always, it is a privilege to serve with the Global Pulse team, past and present.  I expect great things.

Sincerely,

Hana Akselrod
Global Pulse Editor In Chief, 2009-2010