Global Population Health Summit Took Place in New York

New York, USA: The Global Population Health Summit – GPHS, recently took place in New York City, with an aim to promote population health importance by encouraging scientific and evidence-based discussion to tackle the most pressing challenges affecting population health. The event was accredited by the International Congress for Health Specialties – ICHS, which is based in the United Kingdom.

The Global Population Health Summit, which took place at the Javits Conference Center in Manhattan – New York, was held under the theme ‘Ethics and Population Health,’ provided an international scientific platform where prominent health specialists can share their scientific proofs, and provide solutions to maintain the rights, safety, dignity, continuity, and well-being of the world community.

Internationally renowned medical professionals and experts discussed and debated on several pressing topics including: Ethics and Human Health Research, Sexual Reproduction & Population Health, Genetic Engineering, Gender Re-assignment, and Euthanasia.

The moderator for the sessions, Dr. Eric de Roodenbeke, International Health Consultant and ICHS International Advisory Board Member, initiated the conference with an introduction about ICHS, which is an organization that aims to enhance the medical education all over the world while promoting knowledge on all health-related specialties. Dr. Eric Roodenbeke also stressed on the core values that the ICHS organization was built upon, which is to enhance the access to resources and provide further opportunities.

The summit attracted a great number of attendees from different backgrounds, such as medical and health professionals, public health specialists, population health professionals, medical geneticists, scientists, researchers, activists, and advocates whom were interested in improving the state of population health. In addition, the participants also received seven CME Credits from ICHS.

Expert speakers included Dr. Jack Dillenberg, Mayor of Jerome, Arizona, and Dean Emeritus for Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health; Dr. Seth M. Keller, MD, Co-President of The National Task Group (NTG) on Intellectual Disabilities and Dementia Practice; Dr. Vincent Siasoco, Assistant Professor at the Department of Family and Social Medicine, and Department of Pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Prof. Elon Pras, Director at Institute of Human Genetics in the Sheba Medical Center; Dr. Alexandre Ledrait, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychopathology at University of Caen; and Dr. Anna Cognet, Clinical Psychologist and Teacher at the Ecole des Psychologues Praticiens in Paris, France.

In his lecture, Dr. Seth M. Keller, Neurologist and Co-President NTG from the USA, attempted to create meaningful dialogue about the topic of euthanasia while highlighting the fact that every person’s life is worth living. “Most people intend to end someone’s life in a good intention to end their suffering,” he said.

He continued: “Unfortunately, in many countries they end the life of some individuals, especially infants, because they are disabled or have severe disability.”

Dr. Seth also spoke in his lecture about resuscitations and the resuscitation process in order to give people with trauma a chance to live and how it is different from one country to another.

From his side, Dr. Elon Pras, Director at the Institute of Human Genetics, Sheba Medical Centre, spoke about Genetic Engineering and Gender Re-assignment, where he encourages population screening for the prevention of the genetic diseases. He illustrated: “Some of those diseases don’t have a cure, so that’s why I want to discuss how we can prevent them by identifying the carriers of those diseases and recognize them.”

“I am here to stress on the fact that Genetic Engineering has nothing to do with changing the gender of the baby or controlling their IQ, eye color, or height,” he continued.

Dr. Alexandre Ledrait, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychopathology at the University of Caen, spoke about “the depsychiatrization of gender dysphoria” where he talked about the new band of teenagers who are too eager to change their gender at a very young age due to some circumstances they face. He also mentioned the dramatic side effects that trans identity might cause in the long-run on the person, physically, and mentally.

He also talked about the suffering of trans people, indicating that most classical and historical studies are based on research of adults who historically were more like men who wanted to be women. “Most of the patients that I meet think that they are in the wrong body and that changing their gender will take away all of those problems – this is absolutely wrong,” he mentioned.

Dr. Anna Cognet, Clinical Psychologist from France, spoke about “Comorbidities: Mental and Neurocognitive Health of Trans Adolescents and the Impact of Life Events.” She said: “I am here to talk about the trans-identity, and how it effects people on the long run and especially youth. In most cases, we find that young individuals, and especially teenagers, face some challenges in that field due to many factors. However, the main influence they have is through their exposure to fake content on social media which directly affect their thinking.”

Dr. Anna also spoke about the Impact of Transition on Physical and Mental Health. “Risks emerge 10 years after transition. Mental and physical health conditions and symptoms such as bone problems, cancer, anxiety, depression, cardiovascular diseases, ability to harm oneself, and having a suicidal ideation are mainly the major problems that appear,” she mentioned.

Towards the end of the summit, the speakers drafted the GPHS New York Declaration, where they all committed to persistently promote population health importance and awareness, and help to advance and expand medical knowledge, research, and innovation for the benefit of humanity.
The Global Population Health Summit – GPHS, is accredited by the International Congress for Health Specialties – ICHS, which is based in United Kingdom.

For more information about ICHS, please visit: https://ichs.uk/

View the GPHS declaration document.