Harvard School of Public Health

Dr. Richard A. Cash is presently the director of the program on "Ethical Issues in International Health Research" at the Harvard School of Public Health. This program explores differences between and within countries with regard to health research ethics and conducts training workshops. Dr. Cash was previously the Principal Investigator of the Applied Diarrheal Disease Research (ADDR) Project, a program which assisted developing country scientists to develop their research abilities by conducting their own research projects. Over 150 studies, involving more than 350 investigators were funded in twelve countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America leading to over 275 publications. He began his career in international health in Bangladesh in the late 1960s where he and colleagues conducted the first clinical studies on Oral Rehydration Therapy, a therapy that has become an essential treatment in all health programs. It is estimated that since its development ORT has saved over 50 million lives. He was recognized for this work in 2006 as one of the recipients of the Prince Mahidol Award in public health.

Dr. Lawrence M. Barat

United States Agency for International Development

Dr. Lawrence Barat serves as Senior Malaria Advisor at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), working on the $1.2 billion President’s Malaria Initiative. Dr. Barat received his medical degree (1986) from SUNY Downstate Medical Center and an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health (1995). He completed a residency in Internal Medicine at SUNY Downstate and a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM). In 1992, he joined the BUSM faculty and worked with the Boston City Hospital Clinical AIDS Program and the Harvard Hospitals/Boston City Hospital AIDS Clinical Trials Unit. From 1992 to 1993, Dr. Barat also served as AIDS Policy Advisor for the Mayor and Health Commissioner of Boston and played an instrumental role in starting the first legal needle exchange program in Massachusetts. Dr. Barat joined the Malaria Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where his research focused on malaria diagnosis and treatment, including global malaria treatment policy. In 2000, Dr. Barat was assigned to the World Bank by CDC, where he led the Bank’s Malaria Team, sat on the Roll Back Malaria Global Partnership Board, and helped design and implement successful malaria control programs in India and Eritrea. He left the Bank in 2004 to work for AED, a Washington-based nonprofit organization, where he supported several USAID projects, including NetMark, SARA and Africa 2010, and served as Senior Malaria Advisor to USAID’s BASICS project. Dr. Barat joined USAID’s PMI Team in May 2007, where he provides technical leadership on malaria case management, oversees implementation activities in Mozambique and Malawi, and coordinates a US-Brasil collaboration on malaria control in lusophone countries in Africa. During his 13 years career in malaria control, Dr. Barat has worked in more than 20 countries on three continents and has published widely on areas as diverse as the quality and use of malaria microscopy and the distribution of malaria burden by wealth quintile.

Dr. Dennis Ross-Degnan

Harvard Medical School

Dennis Ross-Degnan, Sc.D., is Associate Professor at the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention (DACP) at Harvard Medical School and Director of Research at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. He holds a doctorate in health policy and management from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Ross-Degnan is one of the global leaders in improving use of medicines. His career has focused on improving health systems in the US and developing countries, including research on the factors underlying use of medicines, impacts of pharmaceutical policies on utilization and clinical outcomes, interventions to improve quality of care, and appropriate methods for pharmaceutical research. In 1990, he co-founded the International Network for Rational Use of Drugs (INRUD), a global network of academics, health managers, and policymakers involved in developing and testing interdisciplinary interventions to improve use of medicines. In recognition of these efforts, he was awarded the 2005 HMS Klaus Peter International Teaching Award. Dr. Ross-Degnan has consulted extensively with the World Health Organization on issues related to pharmaceutical access and appropriate use, and co-directs the WHO Collaborating Center on Pharmaceutical Policy based jointly at DACP and the Boston University Center for International Health. 

Dr. Buddhima Lokuge

Doctors without Borders

Dr. Buddhima Lokuge is a medical practitioner and the U.S Manager of the Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines at Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). He has previously worked for MSF in Afghanistan where he ran MSFs malnutrition and tuberculosis program in the district of Ghazni. His frustration at the lack of effective tools to diagnose and treat patients with TB led to his interest in the problems with the way essential medicines are developed and researched and distributed throughout the world today. In addition to his medical duties in Australia, he coordinated research and advocacy in the Asia Pacific region on Access issues. Buddhima has a medical degree from the University of Sydney and a Masters of Public Health from Harvard. Doctors Without Borders is an international medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid in more than 70 countries and reaches more than 10 million people each year. MSF launched the Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines in 1999 to advocate for improved access to existing medicines and to stimulate the development of medicines, diagnostics and vaccines urgently needed by people in the developing world. MSF was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1999.

< back to track III