Global Health Global Health Network Supercourse Project, University of Pittsburgh Building a Global Prevention Network to Share Knowledge and Wisdom.

Global HealthGlobal Health Network Supercourse

Project, University of Pittsburgh

Building a Global Prevention Network to Share Knowledge and

Wisdom

Mission of this lecture

1.Teach every medical, public health and nursing student in the world about global health

2. Develop a global health network for students to tackle local to global health problems.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care.”

  Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948

International Health

“International health refers to the interlocking and interrelated health status of people throughout the world and to efforts to improve the health of all people of every country.”

Last, Foege

Public health, medicine, and nursing: parts of the same puzzle

Global health is an important new term, and an important new concept. The Institute of Medicine refers to global health as

"health problems, issues and concerns that transcend national boundaries, may be influenced by circumstances or experiences in other countries, and are best addressed by cooperative actions

and solutions."

Why should medical students learn about global health

• As of today, medical schools have very few lectures on global health in their curricula

• Health is becoming a global problem, with chronic diseases being a number one killer around the globe

• By learning more about global health research, medical students will be better equipped to face the challenges of their unique profession

What should medical students know about global health

• Know the differences between global and international health research

• Identify key challenges to global health• Recognize the importance of information sharing in

the area of global health• Recognize the importance of preventive activities in

improving global health• Recognize the need for global networking to

improve global health locally and globally

Local health

International health

Global health

Smallpox vaccination: the case of global health effort in disease

eradication

Most important problems of global health today

• Communicable, maternal, perinatal and nutritional conditions

• Noncommunicable diseases

• Injuries

There are many challenges to global health with different professionals emphasizing different diseases.

Interdisciplinary approaches are needed to ease the burden of both

communicable and non-communicable diseases

Digital divide: gap between haves and have nots

One of the biggest global health challenges is access to information

Problem: Information sharing:

Important challenge to global health in the 21st century.

Potential Solution: WWW

The importance of knowledge, learning,

innovation, and IT

“The most fundamental resource in modern economy is knowledge and, accordingly, the most important process is learning”

Lundvall, Bengt-Åke (1992) National Systems of Innovation. Towards a Theory of Innovation and Interactive Learning. Pinter, London and New York, pp. 342

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

Nelson Mandela

University of Khartoum, Sudan

Cuttington University, Liberia

Latest Biomedical Journal1990

One of the Solutions: The Supercourse

THE SUPERCOURSE is a global library of lectures on

prevention and public health, shared for free by the best

faculty in the world.

www.pitt.edu/~super1

BiomedicalResearch

Education in Medicine and Public Health

Global Health Information Sharing: Supercourse CD/DVD

Distributed to over 10,000 individuals around the globe

Forming a network

Conclusion

• Global health is important, as similar conditions plague people in developed and developing countries alike

• Life expectancy in the 20th century was improved due to successes in global health efforts

• Medical students need to know more about global health research and form networks to share important global health knowledge

Organizations working in the area of global health

World Health Organization, the Pan American Health Organization, the

World Bank, UNICEF, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the

UN Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, CARE International, the Global Health Council, and many

others

Ron

FainaMita

EugeneAkira

Rania

Eunryoung

EzzeldeenAbed

Soni

Monica

Additional Readings

Open Source http://www.pitt.edu/~super1/lecture/lec6921/index.htm

Supercourse and Disaster Management Training http://www.pitt.edu/~super1/lecture/lec21601/index.htm

Social Epidemiologic Methods in International Population Health and Health Services Research http://www.pitt.edu/~super1/lecture/lec17561/index.htm

Principles of Research Synthesis

http://www.pitt.edu/~super1/lecture/lec9611/index.htm