The 2008 International Child Health Forum featured health experts from the World Health Organization, UNICEF, United Nations and Pan American Health Organization. There were also experts from NSU, University of Pennsylvania, University of San Francisco and Texas Children’s Hospital.

The forum provided insights into socioeconomic, environmental and technological changes that have proliferated infectious diseases and created an epidemic of child health problems. The conference offered a rare opportunity to develop new standards for the health, safety and well being of children and families in South Florida and throughout the world. Ideas from this conference may help shape local, state, national and international health policies.

This educational child-health forum was designed specifically for those who want to expand their knowledge of global health issues and form new partnerships to stop infectious diseases to minimize global health concerns.

Some of the forum’s speakers included Howard A. Zucker, M.D., J.D., who most recently served as the assistant director general of the World Health Organization in charge of Health Technology and Pharmaceuticals; and psychologists John Foreyt, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Medicine, the Department of Pediatrics, and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine and Carlos Walker Poston, Ph.D., MPH, Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Informatic Medicine and Personalized Health, and Professor of Basic Medical Science and Medicine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Medicine. Kenneth Ginsburg, M.D., FAAP, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania and Scott Poland, Ed.D., CPS associate professor of psychology and past president of the National Association of School Psychologists also presented along with other international experts.