Global Health Concentration

The Global Health Concentration is designed for students interested in understanding the healthcare needs of patients, families, and communities around the world. It prepares students for the challenges of working in areas of the world with limited health care resources. Core curriculum topics are consistent with those proposed by the Consortium of Universities for Global Health and other professional schools that have long been on the forefront of global health education and research. Concentration activities are coordinated with the Office of Global Health.

Kirsten Beyer, PhD, MPH, MS
Professor, Institute for Health & Equity

Megan Schultz, MD, MA
Associate Professor, Pediatrics

Goal

Concentration students learn lessons about global health disparities, cultural diversity and service to vulnerable communities both locally and globally.  The Concentration is designed to help students develop skills and leadership attributes that can lead to being successful physicians in a variety of resourced settings. Students gain the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to effectively address global health burdens such as obesity, diabetes, HIV, epidemics or issues such as immigrant and refugee health, regardless of a local or global location. The Concentration supports a vision of reducing health inequities through collaborative partnerships in education, clinical care, and community engagement. The goal of the Concentration is to train the global physician leaders of tomorrow.

Pathway Competencies or Objectives

Knowledge for Practice

• Identify reliable sources of information on global health issues and organizations dedicated to advancing global health sciences in education and research
• Describe the core definition and science of global health
• Develop knowledge of the challenges and strengths of practicing medicine in limited-, and high-resource settings.
• Appreciate the changing impact of infectious diseases, chronic diseases, and injuries on morbidity and mortality in global settings.
• Demonstrate understanding of how global health issues may impact countries and cities that sponsor immigrants and refugees such as Milwaukee.
• Identify specific global health burdens and develop an understanding of how to address these burdens across a spectrum of environments.

Practice-Based Learning and Improvement

• Develop an understanding of the scope of local and global collaborations active at MCW, Froedtert Health, Children’s Health Systems, and in SE Wisconsin

Interpersonal, Communication and Professionalism

• Identify skills necessary for a mutually beneficial global health elective experience

Personal and Professional Development

• Articulate a matured understanding of how one might integrate global health sciences into a professional career
• Appreciate the complexity of effective problem-solving and health services delivery needed during natural disasters and mass casualties in the international arena
• Expand the understanding of a specific global health issue and country which is of particular personal interest.

Examples of Core Session Topics

• Disaster management and preparedness
• Health care delivery systems
• Refugee, immigrant and adoptee health
• Injury prevention and control
• The global burden of disease - trends, epidemiology and non-communicable disease
• Skill building for working in limited resourced conditions
• Skill building in communicating across languages and cultures
• Telemedicine

Examples of Non-core Activities

• Working in local clinics and with organizations that serve immigrant, refugee or non-US born patients.
• Researching and studying specific global health issues
• Developing and implementing health education initiatives in the community
• Basic and clinical science topics: vaccine development, toxins, EMS services, non-communicable diseases, drug discovery for neglected tropical diseases, immunopathogens of infectious diseases

• Global Health Pathway Core Competencies (PDF)
• MCW Office of Global Health
• Community Engagement