Each year, the ACCESS program hosts their annual symposium, a multidisciplinary event that features prestigious keynote speakers, poster presentations, workshops and more.
2026 Annual Symposium
Date: Sept. 19, 2026
Time: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Location: McGlothlin Medical Education Center
About the Symposium
We are thrilled to announce the theme for the 8th Annual ACCESS Global Health Symposium: "Resilient By Design: Building Sustainable Global Systems That Endure." This year, we will host speakers and attendees from around the world for keynote presentations, roundtable discussions, hands-on workshops, and networking to discuss challenges to attaining sustainability in global health efforts and how to overcome them. Attendees will also have the opportunity to present their research on global medicine and acute care in low-resource settings, locally or globally, through a poster session. Further details and the link to submit your research are available below. We hope that you will be able to join us in September!
Tickets are $10 and include breakfast and lunch for the day. You can purchase a ticket through Tixtree.
Abstract submissions
Abstracts related to public and/or global health, acute care, or health care delivery and systems strengthening in low-resource settings, locally or globally, are welcome. In particular, research related to educational programs and initiatives, and innovations for sustainable health care delivery is encouraged.
- Abstract Submission Deadline: August 1, 2026 (11:59 p.m. EST)
- Abstract Acceptance Notifications: Rolling basis; latest notifications by August 19, 2026 (11:59 p.m. EST) (We encourage you to submit early to allow for planning and preparation if accepted.)
Keynote Speaker and Lecturers
Dr. Marcel Durieux, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Marcel E. Durieux, M.D., PhD, is an Emeritus Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Throughout his career, he has trained anesthesia clinicians in East and Southeast Africa and participated in Doctors Without Borders mission trips in the Central African Republic. Notably, he served as the anesthesiology lead for the Human Resources for Health in Rwanda program, which trained about 4,500 medical and allied practitioners between 2011 and 2019.
Between 2019 and 2022, he focused on providing practical research training in Rwanda. UVA students often assisted with data collection for these projects, and Dr. Durieux has mentored up to 20 students per year traveling to Rwanda for this purpose. In 2019, he initiated the eGlobal program, which pairs UVA students (and some VCU participants) with students at the University for Global Health Equity in Rwanda for a year-long research collaboration. The current program offers this opportunity to about 100 students.
Dr. Durieux’s recent research efforts have focused on improving medical care in low- and middle-income countries. Among other activities, he initiated a program to provide poorly resourced areas with access to their clinical data in digital form, so it can be used for research, quality improvement, and patient care. This project helped build an open-access database of de-identified digital surgical records from low- and middle-income countries.
Dr. Durieux will speak in the morning about Sustainability in Global Care Delivery and participate in a panel discussion on sustainability with other global healthcare leaders.
Dr. Morris Nguyen, M.D., MBA
Dr. Morris Nguyen, M.D., MBA, is a critical care physician and the founder and CEO of Predicate, an AI healthcare company developing technology to help clinicians recognize patterns of clinical deterioration earlier. Predicate’s core platform, OpenDx, combines physiologic data from wearable and medical devices with patient-reported information and natural language to help transform continuously generated health data into clinically meaningful intelligence.
Dr. Nguyen’s work sits at the intersection of medicine, artificial intelligence, and global health, with a particular focus on how emerging technologies can extend clinical expertise, support earlier recognition of critical illness, and strengthen healthcare delivery in resource-constrained settings. His broader goal is to make high-quality, evidence-based clinical intelligence more accessible while reducing the cognitive and operational burden on healthcare systems.
Dr. Nguyen will speak in the afternoon on Technology in Global Health and will also lead the case-based workshop. He will be providing a demonstration of his company’s diagnostic tool, OpenDx, using a simulated patient encounter.
2024 Global Health Symposium
Sept. 14, 2024
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About the Symposium
The theme for the sixth annual ACCESS symposium is Advancing Global Health Eduction: Empowering The Next Generation. Join us for keynote speakers from around the globe, poster presentations, practical workshops, and more. We hope to engage nursing, dental, physical therapy, medical students, physicians, and any members of the public eager to learn!
Keynote speaker and lecturers
- Dr. Juan Carlos Puyana: Global Health Education and the Workforce Gap: Elitism and Exclusivity?
- Dr. Ana Maria Crawford: The Impact of Open-Access and Remote Learning for Perioperative Care
- Dr. Rifat Latifi: The international Virtual e-Hospital, platform of Initiate, Build, Operate, Transfer for sustainable telehealth, and education programs
- Dr. Sagar Galwankar: Sustainable Educational Efforts in India
2023 Global Health Symposium
Sept. 9, 2023
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About the Symposium
We are excited to invite you to the fourth annual VCU ACCESS Symposium. The theme for the 2023 symposium is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Global Era. Join us for keynote speakers from around the globe, poster presentations, critical care workshops, and more. We hope to engage nursing, dental, physical therapy, medical students, physicians, and any members of the public eager to learn!
Keynote speaker and presenters
- Keynote: Dr. Tamara Fitzgerald, Pediatric Surgeon, Duke University
- Dr. Bethany A. Teachman, Professor of Psychology, University of Virginia
- Dr. McKenzie Lee, Global Research Fellow, Virginia Commonwealth University
- Dr. Ashley Shustak, Colorectal Surgery Fellow, Cleveland Clinic Florida
- Dr. Tamara Worlton, Director of Global Surgery, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
- Dr. Indira Sultanić, Assistant Professor of School of World Studies, VCU
- Dr. Miheret Yitayew, Neonatologist, Virginia Commonwealth University
- Dr. Edgar Kalimba, Pediatrician and Pulmonologist, King Faisal Hospital
- Dr. Matthew Glucksberg, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University
2022 Global Health Symposium
Sept. 17, 2022
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About the Symposium
We are excited to invite you to the fourth annual VCU ACCESS Symposium. Each year, this event represents a celebration of knowledge, curiosity, and passion for global health. VCU Medical students have been hard at work planning the 2022 ACCESS global health symposium, aiming to engage a wide range of students, physicians, innovators, and anyone eager to learn. The focus of the 2022 symposium is Strengthening Global Health Efforts in a Post Pandemic World.
Keynote speaker and presenters
- Keynote: Dr. Christine Mugasha, Deputy Family Health Team Lead, USAID Uganda: Strengthening Global Health Efforts in the COVID Era
- Michael Cipoletti, Executive Director of FNE International
- Verónica González Annicchiarico, President FNE International
- Dr. Jasmine Ellis Davy, Pediatric Surgeon with the World Pediatric Project
- Dr. Lise Mumporeze, Head of Anesthesia, Critical Care, & EM, King Faisal Hospital
2021 Global Health Symposium
Sept. 18, 2021
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About the Symposium
We are excited to have hosted the third annual VCU ACCESS Symposium in the Fall of 2021. Each year, this event represents a milestone celebration of knowledge, curiosity and passion for helping others. This year was no different. VCU medical students worked hard to plan the hybrid in-person/virtual 2021 ACCESS global health symposium, which aimed to engage a wide range of students, physicians, innovators, and anyone eager to learn. The 2021 symposium focus was on Challenges to Care from Curbside-to-Bedside in Low Resource Settings. Given the various obstacles faced by clinicians along a patient’s journey from pre-hospital care to hospital admission, this theme was able to create a vital discussion among the presenting speakers and attendees. The symposium involved a mixture of patient cases, specialty specific panels, research presentations, and a networking lunch, which maximized audience interaction and ensured there was never a dull moment. Attendees and speakers from around the globe were able to teach and learn how providers in the fields of Surgery, Anesthesia, Emergency Medicine, Critical Care, and OB/GYN overcome the challenges they face.
Keynote speaker:
Antonio Marttos Jr., M.D, Associate Professor of Surgery and Director of Trauma Medicine at the University of Miami
Dr. Antonio Marttos Jr. is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Director of Trauma Medicine at the University of Miami. Dr. Marttos completed his medical training and residency training in general surgery in Brazil. He was professor of Emergency Medicine and Trauma Surgeon at ABC Foundation Medical School in Brazil and Chief of Surgery at Santa Marina Hospital in Brazil. He completed his fellowship in surgical critical care and trauma at Jackson Memorial Hospital and joined the University of Miami Faculty following that. Dr. Marttos has participated in research studies under US Department of Defense, US Department of State, and Florida Department of Health grants. He is also involved in education and training projects such as Robot in Trauma Environment, the development of solutions to provide expert support in Trauma environments including the Resuscitation unit, the Intensive Care Unit, and the Operating room. Telemedicine capabilities in mass casualty situations with the US Army forward surgical teams as well as in exercises conducted at the hospital; Telemedicine Education and Advice for military Medicine (TEAMM) linking the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine/Ryder Trauma Center with the US Air Force. Dr. Marttos was also awarded the Florida Department of Health Outstanding Leadership for Florida Trauma Telemedicine program. He is the current president of the Panamerican Trauma Society.
2020 Global Health Symposium
Sept. 19, 2020
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About the Symposium
Theme: Overcoming Limits in Global Health
Keynote speaker
- Keynote: Dr. Glen Geelhoed