ISN Global Kidney Policy Forum
April 16, 2021 9:30-13:40 EDT
Global Kidney Policy Forum moderator
Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet
Image credit: Douglas Fry for Piranah Photography.
Global Kidney Policy Forum speaker
Sir George Alleyne, Director Emeritus, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)
Global Kidney Policy Forum speaker
Dr Soumya Swaminathan
Chief Scientist at WHO
The Global Kidney Policy Forum: Focus On North America and The Caribbean was the third in an ongoing series of ISN Policy Forums. The unique format brought an international focus to the key kidney health challenges and opportunities affecting the North America and Caribbean region.
Given the health disparities identified during the global COVID-19 pandemic, this GKPF highlighted some of the challenges faced by specific populations in accessing kidney healthcare.
The Forum’s overarching objective is to enable policy makers, patients, clinicians and administrators/funders to better understand the opportunities to improve kidney health within their region(s), and propose concrete solutions that will help deliver such goals.
Richard Horton is Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet. He qualified in physiology and medicine with honours from the University of Birmingham in 1986. He joined The Lancet in 1990, moving to New York as North American Editor in 1993. In 2016, he chaired the Expert Group for the High Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth, convened by Presidents Hollande of France and Zuma of South Africa. In 2011, he was elected a Foreign Associate of the US Institute of Medicine and, in 2015, he received the Friendship Award from the Government of China. In 2019 he was awarded the WHO Director-General’s Health Leaders Award for outstanding leadership in global health and the Roux Prize in recognition of innovation in the application of global health evidence. He works to develop the idea of planetary health – the health of human civilizations and the ecosystems on which they depend.
Sir George Alleyne, a native of Barbados is a medical graduate of the University of the West Indies (UWI) where he subsequently pursued an academic career. He was appointed Professor of Medicine in UWI in 1972 and Chair of the Department of Medicine in 1976. He joined the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1981, became Director on 1 February 1995 and after re-election in 1998, completed a second four-year term on 31 January 2003. In 2003 he was elected Director Emeritus of PAHO. From February 2003 until December 2010 he was the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean. From 2003 to 2017 he was Chancellor of the University of the West Indies and was a visiting professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University also from 2003 to 2017. Sir George has an extensive scientific bibliography and has given numerous presentations and lectures about a variety of health issues. Sir George has received numerous awards in recognition of his work, including honorary degrees, prestigious decorations and national and international honors. In 1990, he was made Knight Bachelor by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for his services to Medicine. In 2001, he was awarded the Order of the Caribbean Community, the highest honor that can be conferred on a Caribbean national. He is married to Sylvan Chen and they have three children.