Penn’s Center for Global Health was launched by the School of Medicine in 2004 in response to requests from Penn’s medical students who had formed an interest group in global health. It now coordinates the global activities of the school and supports the international aspects of its research, educational, and service programs. This year, the center invited students, residents, and fellows to submit photographs illustrating domestic or global health experiences. The results of its first annual photo contest were announced on World Health Day, April 7.
First place went to Anastasia Vishnevetsky, a fourth-year medical student also working toward her master’s degree in bioethics. She was involved in a research project that took her to Cusco, Peru. The title: “Patient Abandonment.” The photograph, taken by Carla Zapata del Mar, the research collaborator/research assistant for the project, shows a nurse visiting an elderly woman in the villages outside Cusco. She had been abandoned by her family and did not have access to medical care.
Michael Chua, a third-year medical student, took second place with “Peace.” The photo was taken during a health-outreach trip with the Philippines’ Research Institute of Tropical Medicine, during which Chua took part in offering health screenings and providing medications for underserved villages throughout the Leyte province. The village of the girl in the photo, Nina, had been devastated by a typhoon. “Fortunately, her father was able to find shelter for their family and their pigs."
Third place went to Christopher Magoon, a second-year student, during a visit to China’s mountainous Yunnan Province. The title: “Man smoking with woman on farm.” Tobacco is a major agricultural product of the region;
cigarette sales provide important government revenue; and tobacco is tied to notions of manhood and friendship. “These cultural and economic forces make smoking
cessation campaigns especially challenging.”