Global Health
Code
11135
Academic unit
Nova Medical School | Faculdade de Ciências Médicas
Department
TRA - Population Health
Credits
3
Teacher in charge
Prof. Doutor Benedetto Saraceno
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
Understanding the underlying determinants of poor health and the relationship between health and political, social and economic development.
Working as an hub building an individualized Global Health track for students who will create their own curriculum in Global Health using the existing courses.
Framing the academic activities of the Unit within a Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health perspective.
Intended learning outcomes:
-Understanding the global health challenges in Low and Middle Income countries in terms of treatment gap and unacceptable low quality of health services
-Understanding the human resources gap and its implications for access to care
-Understanding the role of international cooperation in global health
-Getting familiar with the main international Reports, Declarations, Seminal documents and Initiatives
-Learning about the formal and informal processes of reaching consensus among Governments: health diplomacy
-Understanding the notion of Essential Medicines
Prerequisites
Subject matter
1. Introduction to global health:
Introduction to the major concepts and principles that govern the practice of global health.
2. Global Mental Health:
Global Epidemiological data on the Burden of Mental, Neurological and Substance Abuse disorders.
3. Noncommunicable Diseases:
The current status of Non communicable diseases and provision of a road map for reversing the epidemic.
4. Health Diplomacy: the case of the Global Strategy on reduction of harmful use of Alcohol:
The WHO Global Strategy on alcohol will be presented: the diplomatic processes which lead to the approval of the Strategy will be analyzed.
5. The concept of Essential Medicine:
The importance of linking medicine selection to the health priorities of a given population.
6. Complex Emergencies:
Effects of complex emergencies (natural and man-made catastrophes including war and conflicts) on populations mental health.
Bibliography
1. Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (2001) Macroeconomics and Health: Investing in health for economic development. Report of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health. WHO, Geneva.
2. Horton, R (editor) (2007 Sept and 2011 Oct) Global Mental Health Series The Lancet.
3. Koplan, Jeffrey, T. Christopher Bond, Michael H. Merson, K. Srinath Reddy, Mario Henry Rodriuez, Nelson K. Sewankambo, and Judith N. Wasserheit, "Towards a common definition of global health," The Lancet 2009, 373 (9679) 1993-1995.
4. World Health Organization. Global status report on noncommunicable diseases 2010, Geneva 2011.
5. WHO (2010) Strategies to reduce the harmful use of alcohol. Draft Global Strategy. WHO, Geneva
6. WHO Model Formulary. Geneva: WHO press; 2004.
7. World Health Organization, Building Back Better: Sustainable Mental Health Care After Emergencies. WHO, Geneva, 2013
Teaching method
The Curricular Unit will be taught using interactive teaching and:
a) Formal presentation by the teacher
b) Plenary discussions on specific and controversial topics.
Each topic will be introduced by a formal power point presentation. This presentation will be posted in moodle platform together with references to relevant scientific articles. During the presentation a plenary discussion on controversial topics will be encouraged.
Evaluation method
The assessment of students is made through a Written Examination. The assessment and evaluation of the learning will be done through a multi-choice questionnaire related to a set of 300 slides posted in the moodle.