Sharing the "fruits of modern science"

Tracy Kidder and Paul Farmer
Tracy Kidder and Paul Farmer
Above photos by Maria Nemchuk, Broad Institute

Paul Farmer and Tracy Kidder visited the Broad Institute on October 20 for a special seminar to discuss critical issues surrounding global public health. Together, they discussed Kidder's recent book, Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World, which eloquently chronicles Farmer's life and his early efforts to launch Partners in Health. This international non-profit organization provides health care and community-based support to people who are most severely impacted by poverty and disease, and a key aspect of its work centers on infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. With ongoing projects in the Caribbean, Latin America, Russia and the United States, the initiatives of Partners in Health now span three continents.

In speaking to Broad scientists and staff, Farmer cautioned that work in the laboratory — what he called the "fruits of modern science" — may be thwarted by the fundamental problems of extreme poverty. For example, new technologies and tools for infectious diseases, some of which are now being developed with funding from major philanthropies, require different strategies for implementation in impoverished areas as opposed to wealthier ones. Farmer emphasized the need for broad-based partnerships that include scientists in the academic research community to devise methods for delivering these new technologies to the people who most desperately need them.