Global Health
| Code | School | Level | Credits | Semesters |
| EPID4018 | School of Medicine | 4 | 20 | Autumn UK |
- Code
- EPID4018
- School
- School of Medicine
- Level
- 4
- Credits
- 20
- Semesters
- Autumn UK
Summary
Historical context of global health, including colonialism, development of tropical medicine and international health
• Exploration of definitions of global health and their limitations
• Introduction to the political economy of health approach and its application
• Overview of key global health actors, such as WHO, World Bank, philanthropic organisations, NGO, national governments, and their relationships and power dynamics
• Overview of key strategic frameworks for global health, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals
• Exploration of key data sources for global health, including the Global Burden of Disease study, and their limitations and critiques
• Key trends and priorities in global health in terms of disease burden
• Concepts of health equity, intersectionality and the societal determinants of health, including racism and other systems of oppression
• Introduction to the concept of health system strengthening and its application
• In depth exploration of the key trends, determinants, stakeholders, and approaches to address a range of global health challenges such as modern slavery, non-communicable diseases, infectious diseases, mental health, child health, and maternal health.
• Consideration of the breadth of interventions and modalities used to address global health challenges including clinical, preventative, strategic, and health systems strengthening approaches.
• Exploration of the range of settings for global health practice, including humanitarian settings
Target Students
Primarily postgraduate students on the Master of Public Health, Master of Public Health (Global Health) and Master of Public Health (Health Research). Places will be available to new staff and PhD students in School of Medicine who require training as part of their research role.
Classes
- One 5-hour lecture each week for 10 weeks
Assessment
- 100% Coursework 1: Individual coursework 4,000 words
Assessed by end of autumn semester
Educational Aims
The course is designed to give students a critical understanding of global health research and practice, with an emphasis on systemic inequities and the political economy of the health. It provides an insight into the global processes and power hierarchies shaping global health, and applies a multi-sectoral, interdisciplinary lens recognising the biological, ecological, ethical, social, cultural, political, and economic factors influencing the delivery of health care and health outcomes globally.Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students will be able to:
- Critically discuss the implications of historical context for contemporary global health
- Adopt interdisciplinary perspectives to identify social, political, economic and environmental determinants of health worldwide.
- Examine the interrelationship between health, health systems, and global processes such as globalisation, climate change, conflict, migration, systems of oppression, and economic development;
- Critically discuss the local, national and global stakeholders and systems influencing health outcomes and access to care worldwide.
- Identify the key values and conceptual and strategic frameworks that shape global health research, policy, and practice.
- Analyse and apply diverse sources of data to strengthen understandings of key global health challenges, such as maternal and child health, mental health, communicable and non-communicable diseases.
- Synthesise evidence to identify strategies to improve global health outcomes.
- Apply a critical approach to global health research and practice.