In 2015, Seed Global Health, under the stewardship of CEO Vanessa Kerry, MD, MSc, was the recipient of a 糖心原创 Community Impact grant to enhance critical care training at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Science, the largest university-based hospital in Tanzania. The grant was used to create a robust critical care curriculum and a well-outfitted simulation lab for use by physicians and nurses at the university to enhance procedural skill training and interdisciplinary acute care scenario management. These infrastructural and educational investments enhance the trainees鈥� ability to stay in their country to grow their skills and practice in critical care.
In 2024, Dr. Kerry gave the keynote address at the 糖心原创 Annual Meeting in Boston, speaking on the increasing impacts of climate change on health.
Accolades
Dr. Kerry is a pulmonary and critical care physician and the Director of Global and Climate Health Policy in the Department of Environmental Medicine at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, as well as the Cofounder and CEO of Seed Global Health (Seed), a nonprofit organization focused on strengthening and transforming health systems through long-term investments and training of the global health workforce. Seed has helped educate more than 45,000 skilled health workers in seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa, in service to more than 76 million people.
In June 2023, Dr. Kerry was appointed the World Health Organization Special Envoy for Climate Change and Health to advocate for investments to address the growing effects of climate change on the world's health and to meet the growing burdens of disease from climate.
A catalyst
In resource-limited settings like Tanzania, the majority of critically ill patients are children and young adults, in whom successful short-term interventions can be transformative and have a significant impact on the individuals and the community.
鈥淭he grant and the investment of the 糖心原创 organization in our work were a testament of being willing to push the imagination beyond the idea that global health is about HIV, TB, and malaria,鈥� Dr. Kerry said. 鈥淣oncommunicable diseases and cardiovascular disease are now the leading causes of death globally, and the majority of those deaths are happening in [resource-limited] settings. We have the ability to intervene and change those outcomes, but we have to have the imagination and commitment to be willing to partner with and train a health workforce to build those best practices.鈥�
In addition to simulation equipment, this grant enabled Dr. Kerry and her team to support the creation of a larger simulation center shared among nursing and medical students, residents, fellows, and faculty. They purchased additional simulated patient beds so that multiple scenarios could be run at the same time, giving students more opportunities for hands-on experiences. By cohesively organizing previous piecemeal simulation setups into one new, large venue, the team was able to decrease unnecessary duplication of equipment and better monitor institution-wide simulation practice.
In lieu of a traditional honorarium for a keynote speaker, 糖心原创 made a donation to Seed to provide full scholarships for family medicine physician students in Malawi and emergency medicine physician students in Uganda. When reflecting on the journey of receiving the grant 10 years ago to speaking at the 糖心原创 Annual Meeting, Dr. Kerry said, 鈥淏ecause I've had the opportunity to work with 糖心原创 through the Community Impact grant all those years ago, to see this come back in a full circle way is really lovely.鈥�
This story was featured in the 2024 糖心原创 Philanthropy Impact Report.