On October 28, 2010, The New York Academy of Medicine opened the second day of the 9th Annual International Conference on Urban Health with a speech by Dr. Thomas A. Farley, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Dr. Farley focused his remarks on the innovative approaches the city has taken in addressing the leading causes of mortality and morbidity among New Yorkers, including tobacco use and obesity.
Dr. Farley was followed by Dr. Jason Corburn, Associate Professor at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, who spoke about the politics of urban planning and the significance of place-health relationships, especially in San Francisco, the regional focus of his work.
The morning plenary culminated with a talk by Celeste de Souza Rodrigues, Secretariat of Planning for the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, who spoke about innovations in addressing determinants of health in Belo Horizonte, including the practice of participatory budgeting, a form of representative democracy that gives the public the right to define priorities of public investments.
