March 24, 2009

Purdue Pugwash conference to focus on health-care solutions

The conference, titled "Health Care and Humanity: Solutions for Today and Tomorrow," will feature speakers from some of the leading academic and health institutions in the country, including GE Healthcare, the University of Michigan, Doctors Without Borders, the Harvard School of Public Health, the University of Chicago Medical Center, Cook Biotech and the Indiana University School of Medicine.

Check-in for the conference will begin at 5:30 p.m. Friday (March 27) at Purdue Stewart Center, Room 302. The conference will begin at 6 p.m. in Room 302.

A formal banquet will be offered at 6:15 p.m. in Stewart Center, Room 302, and beginning at 7 p.m. Edward Norton, a professor of health management and policy at the University of Michigan, will speak on "The Rising Costs of Health Care." At 9 p.m. Friday (March 27), conference attendees are invited to a social at the Recreational Sports Center.

The conference will resume at 8 a.m. Saturday (March 28) with registration and breakfast in the Stewart Center West Foyer. At 8:45 a.m., Kelly Sager and Erica Watson of GE Healthcare will speak on "Costs, Technology, Privacy and Digitizing of Health Records" in Stewart Center's Fowler Hall.

Breakout sessions will be offered from 10:15 to 11:30 a.m. in Stewart Center. These include "Adjusting to an Aging Population" with William Dale, interim chief of geriatrics at the University of Chicago Medical Center; "Ethical Issues in Genetic Testing" with Kimberly Quaid, professor of medical and molecular genetics at the Indiana University School of Medicine; and "Biotechnology" with Michael Hiles, vice president of research and chief scientific officer of Cook Biotech.

Following lunch and a discussion workshop, Johanne Sekkenes, a nurse with Doctors Without Borders, will speak on "Malnutrition and Health in the Developing World" at 2:15 p.m. in Fowler Hall.

During the final portion of the conference, Kimberly Thompson will speak about "Nutrition, Obesity and Public Health." She is an adjunct associate professor of risk analysis and decision science at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Registration for the conference is $20 for the general public, $15 for Purdue students and $10 for high school students. Purdue Student Pugwash members attend for free. To register, visit https://www.conf.purdue.edu/pugwash/

Student Pugwash USA is a national organization that promotes open discussion on topics pertaining to science, technology and ethics. The first Pugwash conference was held in 1957 and was based on the principles of the Einstein-Russell Manifesto. Its mission is to focus on the ethical considerations scientists must face in their work. Pugwash received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 for its efforts in raising awareness about the ethics of scientific research.

The Purdue chapter of Student Pugwash USA has been on campus for 19 years, and this is the fourth year the conference has been held at Purdue.

Writer: Christy Jones, 765-494-1089, christyjones@purdue.edu

Source: Jessica Holsinger, Purdue Student Pugwash public relations, 317-752-6696, jmholsin@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

To the News Service home page