2020 will be remembered as the year when a ‘simple’ virus affected all spheres of life of very many people, with disastrous consequences all over the world. In essence, the COVID-19 pandemic is an example of how systemic approaches to health and health problems are central not only to health research, but also to policymaking and the development of effective and equitable policies for the challenges we are currently facing in our societies.

ITM’s Ecohealth group is organising a seminar series in which speakers will discuss current challenges such as climate change, globalisation, urbanisation and emerging diseases, and illustrate how systems approaches can be applied to better understand the issues, analyse their root causes and inform solutions.

The seminar is open to ITM staff, students and alumni. Interested members of the public can participate upon registration.

Seventh seminar:

On Wednesday the 26th of May from 1-2pm, Professor Sabine Gabrysch will give a talk titled ” The Food and Agricultural Approaches to Reducing Malnutrition (FAARM) trial in Bangladesh: An EcoHealth-inspired project in practice“.

Sabine Gabrysch is Professor for Climate Change and Health at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Department head at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). After studying medicine in Germany and working as a medical doctor in Sweden, she completed an MSc and PhD in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She previously led the Unit of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health. Her research focuses on maternal and child health in low-income settings, in particular early life malnutrition. In 2018, she received the ‘Preis für mutige Wissenschaft’ (Award for bold research) of the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg for her research project FAARM in Bangladesh. 

About the EcoHealth group

The Ecohealth group brings together researchers from ITM’s 3 departments, from eco-epidemiology,  infectious disease control, clinical medicine, political science, anthropology and health systems). The group adopts a whole systems approach to making sense of health and health problems. Its starting point is the dynamic interactions between human, social, biological, ecological and political systems and how that affects the health of people. This in turn demands a transdisciplinary approach and the active engagement and participation of key stakeholders in order to co-create solutions for transformative, sustainable and equitable change.