Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Luminaries Focus Promote Global Health in the United Arab Emirates

L to R: Ruth Frey, Paul Offit, Hakon Hakonarson, Madeline Bell, Monica Taylor Lotty, Consultant Pam King Sams, Bonnie Offit Luminaries from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), led by Madeline Bell, President and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Paul Offit, Director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at CHOP,  and Dr. Hakon Hakonarson, MD, PhD, Director of the Center for Applied Genomics at CHOP, celebrated a unique opportunity to participate in “Reaching the Last Mile” event hosted by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, in partnership with The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

This event brought together more than 250 global leaders to tackle issues central to infectious disease eradication, highlighting CHOP’s innovation and the importance of philanthropy.  CHOP’s Dr Paul Offit, a leader in vaccine discovery and advocacy, as well as inventor of the Rotovirus vaccine, was a featured speaker at the event, which celebrated the launch of a new Global Health Fund Initiative (GLIDE), to help stem the ravages of infectious disease worldwide. The event raised $2.6 billion was raised for polio eradication.

CHOP had high level conversations with other luminaries who discussed global outreach with our Ruth Frey, MSN, CPNP, Vice President- Global Strategy and Business Development in CHOP’s Global Medicine division.

In other trip highlights, Bell and members of our team attended  a small gathering with His Highness at his Palace, where the Vatican signed a deal to work with the UAE on global health issues.

While in the UAE, members of the CHOP team met also with several grateful families, including the HE Eassa Al Mheiri family, who had many wonderful things to say about CHOP.