CARE UNDER PRESSURE

Experiences, health systems, and responses

The case of Myanmar – health, politics, and resistance

Time: Tuesday 27 October 2026

Place: ØHA1, Blåhø, Øya helsehus, NTNU/St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim

The registration for the conference is now open: Registration Deadline is 20th October

The global health day has been arranged since 2010, with both national and international speakers with a broad audience. NTNU is hosting the day in collaboration with TSO Health and Life Sciences and St. Olavs Hospital. The conference is an arena for presentations and discussions on current topic relevant for collaboration for improved health in low- and middle-income countries and of relevance for Norwegian research environments.

Target group: The conference aims to bringing together Norwegian and international researchers, students, health professionals, policy makers and others with an interest in global health.

The One-day conference is divided in two sessions:

Session1: Care under pressure - experiences, health systems, and responses        Chair: Håkon Bolkan 

The session will move beyond individual accounts to highlight broader system challenges and responses, including attacks on healthcare, the role of humanitarian organisations, and the importance of maintaining core health system functions during crises. While grounded in real-world experiences, the presenters will also point toward solutions and continuity: how care is sustained, adapted, and rebuilt under pressure.

Some presenters: 

Frode Aasgaard is a general and vascular surgeon and Head of the Vascular Surgery Section at St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim, Norway. He received his medical education in Hungary and has worked as a physician for 25 years. He is a specialist in general surgery and vascular surgery, with extensive clinical experience in the management and surgical treatment of vascular disease. He is married and has six children.

Marcus Prescott is a surgical resident at St. Olavs Hospital and a former urgent care and emergency room nurse, with a background in tropical medicine (CTropMed). He currently works with the NGO Frontline Medics in eastern Ukraine, supporting Ukrainian military units with training, stabilisation-point care and medical evacuation.

Terje Andreas Eikemo is Professor of Sociology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and leader of CHAIN – Centre for Health Equity Analytics. His research focuses on global health inequalities and the social determinants of health, with particular emphasis on how inequalities can be measured, explained, and reduced.

He is a Principal Collaborator with the Global Burden of Disease study and a member of the WHO Health Inequality Monitoring Network. After more than a decade as Editor-in-Chief of the Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, he is now the founding Editor-in-Chief of Alliance – Journal of the World Federation of Public Health Associations, a new global journal aiming to combine scientific excellence with relevance for public health policy and practice.

Session 2: The case of Myanmar – health, politics and resistance          Chair: Jennifer Infanti 

This session takes a deeper, country-specific look at Myanmar as a case of protracted crisis, where political conflict, military rule, and displacement have profoundly shaped access to healthcare. It will explore how health systems operate in parallel to – or in resistance to – state structures, including the role of ethnic health organisations, cross-border care, and diaspora and advocacy networks. By focusing on Myanmar, this session aims to unpack the complex intersections of health, politics, and power – and what they mean for providing care in highly constrained and contested environments. 

Some presenters: 

Dr Cynthia Maung, herself a displaced person forced to flee her homeland in 1988, knows firsthand the challenges facing refugees and the displaced people in accessing health care, education and protection services.

During the pro-democracy movement of the 1988, she joined villagers and students to bring about positive change in Myanmar. She was among those who fled when the military seized power in September 1988. She and fourteen of her colleagues travelled through forests and remote villages treating locals suffering from disease and injury with the limited supplies they carried.

Dr Cynthia founded Mae Tao Clinic in western Thailand, along the Thailand-Burma border, which tirelessly provides critical medical care, education and protection services  for the displaced and migrant people of Eastern Myanmar. Mae Tao Clinic addresses the health care needs and human rights of these people through comprehensive programs and a collaborative approach with local, national, international and government bodies for over 30 years. 

Tentative program for the Conference

The registration for the conference is now open:

Registration Deadline is 20th October

Funded by: