Nossal Highlights
Publications
The Nossal Institute for Global Health, in collaboration with BasicNeeds have recently released a Mental Health Training Manual for community health workers in India. The development of the manual was made possible by a grant from the Australia India Council. The contribution of one of the authors, Ms Kate Gibson, was made possible through the Victorian Public Health Training Scheme of the Department of Human Services. Kate undertook a four month placement at the Nossal as a public health fellow. The manual was piloted last December with village health workers from the Comprehensive Rural Health Project in Jamkhed, Maharashtra.
Podcasts
Widows of Injecting Drug users in North East India - Michelle Kermode
Drug Use, HIV and Harm Reduction in North East India - Peter Deutschmann, Michelle Kermode and Prarthna Dayal
Technical Review Meeting
The Health Policy and Health Finance Hub held a technical review meeting held from 7 – 11 September 2009.
The meeting was attended by study collaborators in the three product areas of the Hub’s work, as well as a range of technical reviewers, both from within Australia, from national level in countries of the region, and from regional and international stakeholders.
The meeting was divided into three phases:
7-8 September: Intensive meetings with the Indonesian (UGM) and Vietnamese (HSPI) study teams to review findings, discuss analysis, and for capacity building in specific technical areas (systematic literature review; regulatory analysis).
9-10 September: Individual discussion and review of each of the product work areas, including collaborating teams from Australia, with selected technical reviewers. These sessions included presentations from each team and plenary discussion; identification of commonalities and links between the activities.
11 September: Plenary presentations with external technical reviewers, including Peter Berman by video-link from USA; feedback from partners.
Presentations
"A conceptual approach to ananlysis of health financing" | "Conducting systematic reviews"
Regulation for technical review planning"
Visit by Ms Therese Rein
The Nossal Institute was delighted and honored by the recent visit of Ms Therese Rein on 30 June. Her visit was primarily to 
learn of our work in Maternal and Child Health, Disability and Adolescent Health, along with the challenges faced in achieving targets of the Millenium Development Goals. Following lunch and a general discussion she also took the opportunity to meet with students attending a Public Health Leadership Course conducted by the Nossal Institute.
Photo (Left to Right): Prof Graham Brown, Jenny Booth, Alison Morgan, Therese Rein, Sally Baker, Prarthna Dayal and Emma Brathwaite
Research Collaboration - Low Cost Technology for Health
Researchers have developed a range of mobile phone applications and low-cost diagnostic devices that will run on mobile phones and make them into useful devices to support health workers in their day-to-day work.
Associate Professor Jim Black (Nossal Institute), Associate Professor Rens Scheepers (Department of Information Systems) and Professor Liz Sonenberg (Department of Information Systems) have been working in collaboration with Mozambican physicians and health workers utilising Microsoft Technology to develop a suite of inexpensive and easy-to-use mobile phone applications that assist health workers in developing countries diagnose disease and improve care.
Photo: Associate Professor Jim Black
More information | PDF Fact Sheet
In Conversation with Valerie Taylor
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On Monday 22nd July, Nossal Institute hosted an evening conversation with Valerie Taylor. Valerie is a British born physiotherapist who has spent most of her working life in Bangladesh. She is the founder and driving personality of the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP) that works with Bangladeshi people with spinal injuries and neurological disorders. Valerie’s talk was a reminder that creative and lateral adaption of existing technology can illuminate the best local solutions.
Link to MP3 recording of Valerie Taylor | 
Open Powerpoint Presentation
Deans Lecture Series "Great Challenges for a Healthy Planet"
Presented by Professor Rob Moodie on Tuesday 24 March 2009
Professor Rob Moodie presented a fascinating and enlightening perspective on the complex contemporary health challenges that we face on a global level to an auditorium of around 200 attendees in the Wright Lecture Theatre, University of Melbourne.
He provided evidence of the relentless increase in the role of powerful marketing forces, from Melbourne to Mumbai to Maputo, in determining our wellbeing. He spoke of the burgeoning of players in global health, providing an insight into the work of the World Health Organization, the Gates Foundation and the direction of global health leadership.
Professor Moodie drew on over 30 years experience in clinical medicine and public health for organisations such as Save the Children Fund, Médecins Sans Frontiers, the World Health Organization, the joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and VicHealth.
Connecting with Alumni in Thailand
The Director of Nossal Institute, Professor Graham Brown visited Thailand in February and met with alumni of the Faculty of Medicine.
Dr Sunya Viravaidya, a top student of his year at the Austin hospital and now a prominent medical and business leader in Pattaya, is pictured addressing a function in Bangkok. His generous personal donations to the Nossal Institute are a result of his wish to make a difference to global health, and his gratitude to the University for the education he received as an international student.
Nossal Forum
20 November 2008
The 4th Annual Nossal Global Health Forum, held on 20th November 2008, brought together two hundred people to hear about and discuss the themes of “Disability in Development”, and “Health Systems and the Role of Health Financing”. Professor Graham Brown, Director of the Nossal Institute, opened the Forum and Mr Ian Renard, Chancellor of The University of Melbourne, gave the welcome address.
The opening address was given by Mr Murray Proctor, the Deputy Director General, Program Enabling Division of AusAID, highlighted the substantial and increasing global commitment to health, with an increased focus on achieving health service outcomes. He spoke about the fact that the Millennium Development Goals have shifted the focusto the systems of governments in developing countries, and have emphasized the need to provide financial resources and institutional capacity to strengthen health systems within countries.
Professor Peter Berman Adjunct Professor of Population and International Health Economics, Harvard School of Public Health, gave the first keynote address " More, better, new?" followed by Charlotte McLain-Nhlapo, Senior Operations Officer - Disability at the World Bank with her presenation "Mainstreaming Disability in Devlopment - experience from the World Bank".
The afternoon parallel sessions on "Health Systems and the Role of Health Financing" and "Disability in Development" were introduced by Kris Hort and Beth Fuller from the Nossal Institute with presentations from Ms Elena Down, Inclusive Development Policy Officer from AusAID and Dr Claudia Rokx from the World Bank in Indonesia.
The forum concluded with closing remarks by the Right Honourable Malcolm Fraser.
Photo: Right Honorable Malcolm Fraser
Announcements 
The Nossal Institute welcomes a new staff member, Dr. Grant Blashki, who commenced on January 5 2009. Grant is a Senior Research Fellow in Climate Change and Health and is part of the Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Unit.
His three themes of research are climate change, mental health and primary health care. Grant has co-authored 60 peer reviewed publications, 14 government reports, is co-editor of the text book General Practice Psychiatry and over the last five years has been a chief investigator in $3.9 million of research projects. He is actively engaged with community work including as a clinical advisor to beyondblue, as a mentor in the Al Gore Climate Leadership Project, as a cofounder of Doctors for the Environment Australia and was a 2020 summit participant.
Grant is a practicing GP and Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. His other credits include being a visiting fellow at the Australian National University, and an honorary senior lecturer at Kings College London.