The biennial Conference Series to Promote Global Health (PI: Hser, NIDA R13DA035084) is sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, in collaboration with organizations in Asia and around the world.
The first meeting, which was held April 17–19, 2013, in Taipei, Taiwan, was organized by UCLA in partnership with the Taiwan National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) and the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA); 365 participants from 17 countries attended the meeting.
The theme was prevention and treatment of substance abuse and HIV, focusing on Asia and the Pacific Islands (API). The conference sessions covered the current status of drug abuse and HIV in Asian countries as reported by their representatives, featured strategies for meeting challenges posed by these problems, and promoted international collaborative work on the prevention and treatment of substance use and HIV in order to promote health in API and other populations.
Keynotes were delivered by Nora Volkow, M.D., NIDA Director, and Gilberto Gerra, M.D., Chief of the Drug Prevention and Health Branch for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Local officials (Wen-Ta Chiu, M.D., Ph.D., Minister, Department of Health, Executive Yuan, Taiwan; Jaw-Jou Kang, Ph.D., Director, Taiwan Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health, Executive Yuan, Taiwan; Hsing-Jien Kung, Ph.D., President, NHRI, Taiwan) opened the conference with a welcome to the participants, and NIDA officials (Wilson Compton, M.D., M.P.E., Jacques Normand, Ph.D., Betty Tai, Ph.D.) and many eminent researchers presented cutting-edge research findings and led discussions.
Speakers from UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs (ISAP) included Richard A. Rawson, Ph.D., and Walter Ling, M.D. This event was co-hosted by Yun Wang, Ph.D., Director, Center for Neuropsychiatric Research of NHRI, and Yih-Ing Hser, Ph.D., Director of ISAP’s Center for Advancing Longitudinal Drug Abuse Research (CALDAR), David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Drug use persists as a major problem that severely impacts the health of individuals and populations, locally and globally. The international Conference Series to Promote Global Health is designed to share research findings on substance abuse treatment and HIV prevention, stimulate international collaborations, particularly between the United States and API countries, and inform cultural aspects of treatment and prevention of substance abuse and HIV. These and upcoming activities are part of efforts to extend NIDA’s mission of promulgating research-based interventions to improve health services and promote health globally.
Future meetings will rotate among different locales in Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the United States. Planning for the 2015 conference is underway. Conference presentations and upcoming information will be posted at www.caldar.org.Date: 5/14/2013
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