Why a Global Health Course

Thirty years after the Declaration of Alma Ata, the challenge of attaining equity and HEALTH FOR ALL continues to confront us today. In this era of globalization, societies are increasingly becoming more dependent on each other, further underscoring the need for an interdisciplinary approach to health and development, cultural competence and international collaboration. We need a concerted response from stakeholders if we are to make this world more just and humane.

Current traditional health professional education recognizes the need but has not much substance in promoting an integrated, interdisciplinary approach and global cooperation for health promotion. The focus has been on individual or personal health; hence, it is largely disease-oriented, hospital-based, curative, technology-focused, and doctor-[or professional-] centric.

The University of the Philippines Global Health Course (UP-GHC) addresses these educational gaps by highlighting local and international health issues and best practices to address these issues. It aims to-

1. Promote a social perspective of health and global issues
2. Provide a venue for sharing of experiences among participants from different Philippine regions as well as middle-income countries
3. Provide exposure to various career and practice opportunities in global health
4. Develop a network of health care professionals and students concerned with local and international/global health issues.

It is envisioned as a way to deepen the participants’ understanding of health, thus preparing them to become more effective health professionals.

Why the University of the Philippines College of Medicine

As part of the Philippine national university system, the University of the Philippines College of Medicine remains at the forefront of developing socially responsive and community-oriented medical education in the country. It is with this responsibility that the college offers the UP Global Health Course to complement the current health professions education, especially for those students who are already predisposed with a broader, social perspective of health and medicine. It is intended to nurture this group of students who, early in their careers, have shown aptitude and commitment to working with vulnerable groups in the country.

The three UP-GHC offerings in 2005, 2006, and 2007 are products of the joint efforts of the students and faculty of the UP College of Medicine, made possible by financial contributions from the Office of the Dean and its attached units- the Community-Oriented Medical Education Unit and Social Medicine Unit. Resources were likewise shared by the UP Medicine Student Council and UP Center for Gender and Women’s Studies, with one-time grants from the Global Health through Education, Training and Research (GHETS), the Philippine Council on Health Research and Development, and the secretariat of the First Asia Pacific and Human Rights Congress.

To date, some 81 students from government and private health professions schools all over the Philippines have participated in the UP-GHC. Studies are underway to determine the whereabouts of the UP-GHC graduates career-wise, but offhand, many participants especially from the UP have remained on track to joining public and global health-related positions, if they are not already engaged in such work. These students have been nurtured by local experts with international credentials as well as non-Filipino faculty members joining the UP-GHC from the WHO and Australia and Malaysia.

The UP Global Health Course Proper

The Fourth UP Global Health Course is intended to be a five-day live-in conference on global health issues using plenary discussions, workshops and mentoring sessions. It is intended primarily for fifty (50) students of medicine, nursing, dentistry, and other allied health professions in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific Region. Target date for the course is on April 13-18, 2009.

Participants of the UP-GHC should be able to:

1. Discuss and analyze variations of health, disease patterns, access to quality health services and health promotion strategies within and between countries
2. Discuss and analyze health issues of local and global health services
3. Propose specific solutions to an identified health problem using learned cognates in health promotion

Topics covered include:

1. Current Global Health Situation in the Southeast Asia and Western-Pacific Region, the Developing Countries and the Low to Middle Income Countries
2. Health Measurement & ICT Tools
3. Rights Based Approach to Development
4. Gender, Culture and Sexuality
5. Violence Against Women
6. War and Health
7. Organization of Health Systems.
8. Information, Education and Communications Strategies
9. Social Mobilization and Community-Based Health Programs
10. Factor Affecting Health
11. Local and International Public-Private Partnerships in Health
12. Management of Human Resources

Teaching – Learning – Evaluation Strategies:

1. Plenary Talks
2. Case Studies and Small Group Discussions
3. Workshops
4. Poster Presentations
5. “Kwentuhan” or Informal Life Story-telling Sessions with Mentors
6. Action Planning
7. Learning Portfolio and Written Evaluation Tools

Organizing The UP Global Health Course

The human resource for the Course Secretariat, Scientific Committee, and the Committees for Logistics and Publicity and Promotions come from among the faculty, students and administrative staff of the UP College of Medicine.