This academic year, global health faculty Janet Bettger and Catherine Staton are co-leading the Global Alliance on Disability and Health Innovation (GANDHI) Bass Connections team to examine life-altering disabilities from multiple perspectives and cultures. The project is part of a broader goal to develop innovative interdisciplinary approaches to bridge the gap from hospital to home for patients, strengthening health system and community collaboration to improve the quality of life for people newly living with disability.

Last spring, the GANDHI leadership engaged an interdisciplinary group of Duke faculty to develop a framework to guide design and data collection efforts on how disabilities were managed across the world for people transitioning home from the hospital. Over the summer, students conducted pilot studies on stakeholder perspectives, available resources and health policies in Argentina, Uganda and Norway, respectively.

This fall, team members are participating in a seminar course on life with disabilities and healthcare fragmentation around the globe, in which students are paired with partners in ten countries (China, Singapore, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina, Tanzania, Uganda and the U.S.) in order to produce a multicountry comparison on healthcare, policies and stakeholder perspectives on improving the lives of people newly living with disabilities. 

As a faculty member, engaging students, faculty and external collaborators in this model is the most rewarding work of my academic portfolio.

“In just the last month we have learned from each other, shared knowledge from our different schools and perspectives and have expanded our individual networks beyond our group,” said Bettger. “As a faculty member, engaging students, faculty and external collaborators in this model is the most rewarding work of my academic portfolio.”

The Bass Connections team—including 22 students and more than a dozen faculty—will also be working this year to raise awareness of the challenges people around the globe face when they are discharged home from the hospital with new impairments and disabilities.

This project thinks beyond survival, to the very human aspect of patient care—his or her everyday life beyond diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation.

“As GANDHI’s project coordinator, I’ve had the opportunity to contribute to each step in GANDHI’s development,” said Michelle Roberts, a second-year Master of Science in Global Health student. “This project thinks beyond survival, to the very human aspect of patient care—his or her everyday life beyond diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation.”

To learn more about the project and read recent updates, visit their team website. 

Excerpted from Bass Connections Seeking Proposals for New Projects on the Duke Global Health Institute website; image courtesy of Michelle Roberts (one of the ten research sites, Hospital Italiano in Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Learn More

• Read about this project team.
• Explore Bass Connections in Global Health.
• Find out how to get involved in Bass Connections.