Overview
The overall objective of the Case Framework Program for Global Health is to interest and retain undergraduate, graduate and professional students in international health related careers by expanding the perception of what are relevant fields, facilitating interdisciplinary study and providing opportunities for applied experiences.
The framework program facilitates the identification of existing courses across disciplines that are relevant to Global Health and develops a pool of faculty advisors with expertise in the multi-dsicplinary field of Global Health. A key component of the program will be to create a limited number of exchange and support programs with Departments and Ministries of Health in developing countries of Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas via existing contacts within the Case community. For example, students’ will be able to apply their training in policy, modeling, data analysis, pathogen detection and resource allocation to small scale issues and databases in countries that have good data collection infrastructure, but poor capacity for analysis and research. This activity will be conducted within workshops on campus as well as at the international sites themselves. Students who fulfill the general core competencies and those specifically related to their main discipline will be identified as having completed a concentration in Global Health in addition to a degree in their discipline or profession.
Integrated Curriculum
Participating academic departments and programs have formed a committee to develop general core competencies in Global Health for each academic or professional discipline. The committee is currently developing an introductory course to Global Health and will confirm degree specific requirements for a Global Health Concentration by Summer of 2007.
Application-oriented Workshops
New and existing 1 credit hour applied Global Health workshops will be offered in conjunction with this program. Potential activities are to analyze, model, forecast disease or healthcare utilization patterns using data from clinics, local laboratories, regional labs or Ministries of Health. There is a wealth of raw publicly available or otherwise- accessible data in developing (as well as developed) countries. Even small scale data sets from a single lab or clinic (penicillin use versus isolation of Strep. Pneumo, dengue virus isolation over the last decade) may produce valuable information for the source and would be an important experience for students. The value for students to work with, analyze, form conclusions and communicate this to a real entity is priceless. Writing an actual IRB protocol for an international study, reviewing actual IRBs, critiques of drafts of healthcare legislation in Kenya, analysis of hydrographic data available from the internet from Brazil, are also potential workshops. Other multi-disciplinary workshops would include hands-on laboratory in genotyping and serotyping for non-molecular biologists.
Short-term International Research Experiences
Short student research projects under supervision in developing countries are they highlight of the Framework Program. They are in some sense an extension of the workshops, but provide the invaluable experience of working directly with foreign colleagues, experiencing cross-culture communication, understanding the conditions under which these colleagues work, understanding better how the data are collected and what they mean. The short term projects support local, regional or national health authorities in areas where they may not have funds or staff to perform themselves such as data analysis and forecasting, policy development. Students may apply this experience to capstone projects, nursing, graduate, or medical school theses.
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