2 September 2021
Professor Graham Watt, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) Trustee and Chair of the Lancet Palestinian Health Alliance (LPHA) steering group reflects on the 11th LPHA conference and highlights the main sessions.
Since its inception in 2010 MAP has supported the annual scientific conferences of the LPHA. The 11th conference was planned to take place in 2020 at Birzeit University in the West Bank but because of COVID-19 had to be postponed and eventually took place virtually via Zoom on 12-15 July 2021.
Unlike previous conferences which attracted 200-300 participants, the total number of viewers at the end of July was nearly 1500. With fewer obstacles to overcome (e.g. funding, travel from Gaza and Lebanon) it was found that a virtual conference has much to offer.
Conference sessions took place over four days and can be viewed in hour-long segments here.
I Opening session, COVID in the oPt, address by Richard Horton, Editor of the Lancet
II Consequences of the Great March of Return
IV Political violence and mental health
VI Children and adolescents
VIII Non-communicable diseases – 1
IX Non-communicable diseases – 2
X Communicable diseases
XI Effectiveness of medical procedures
XII Health economics and health systems
XIII Closing session
Despite the organisational challenges LPHA 11 affirmed the LPHA as a vibrant research community. Half of the first authors were women and 30% were aged under 30.
Looking to the future the LPHA is going from strength to strength, applying scientific methods to describe, explain and evaluate the health and health care of Palestinians.
Read more about the 11th LPHA conference here.
