July, 2020
The Summer Interdisciplinary School of Global Health is a new educational initiative of Civitas University and the Foundation “Smart Health – Health in 3D” in Warsaw, Poland. This course on global health is intended for international students who will work together in learning about and seeking solutions for some of the world’s most pressing health problems, such as air pollution and climate change, emerging infections and antimicrobial resistance, epidemic obesity and diabetes, and health inequities. After completing the course, students will have a better understanding of the determinants of health and new skills in problem-solving and working in teams. For those intending to become health care professionals, the course will serve as a broad background on the determinants of health.
Course participants will combine students from Central and Eastern Europe with students from other countries of Europe and beyond, creating informative interactions among participants. The course will be centered on key problems; students will work together in groups to understand the problems and and to analyze evidence to find solutions. Core resource materials will be provided and background given in a limited number of lectures. Students will also learn about the determinants of health and governance related to health through visits to institutions in Poland that are engaged in protecting and advancing population health. Course instructors have a broad background in population health and will guide the students across the three weeks of the course as they tackle challenging global health problems.
2020 Program
This summer school is divided into four modules, in which topics are presented through lectures, workshops, open debates, field visits, and team project work.
Module 1: Introduction to global health
Objective: to raise the awareness of global health problems and increase the knowledge on how to solve them through global, regional, national and community-based strategies
Topics:
- Key indicators of global and public health and health promotion
- A look at the history of public health: lessons learned based on key examples, such as tobacco control and HIV/AIDS
- Patterns, trends and challenges in global health in the 21st century
- Profiling and mapping global health: an example of the Tobacco Control Atlas
- Health for all: what does it mean and is it a real goal or politically correct strategy?
- Global and regional models of health care systems and management
- 5 case studies focused on healthy risk and protective factors, for example tobacco, alcohol, diet, physical activity, infections and air pollution (smog)
Module 2: Health policy and economics
Objective:to increase the knowledge on comprehensive public health policies and skills in decision-making process, with special focus on economic aspects of health burden and challenges
Topics:
- Economics of global health: assessing benefits and costs
- Politics, public policies and health
- Health, economic crisis and social-economic transformation
- Socio-economic inequalities in health: origins and global and regional patterns
- Health, security and terrorism
- Marketing and promotion of harmful substances: an example of industry interference into public health policy
Module 3: Sociological look at health in theory and practice
Objective:to raise the awareness of social and cultural determinants of health problems and to know how to discuss on challenges in global health from sociological perspective
Topics:
- Introduction to sociology of health and medicine
- Toward homo hygenicus? A philosopher’s look at health, human rights and bioethics
- Cultural dimensions of health: introduction to anthropology of health
- Health in post-modern society
- Critical thinking in public health
- Invisible dimensions of health – health in art and fashion
- Introduction to health coaching
- North American and European look at public health – contiguities and discrepancies
Module 4: Technology in health and social change
Objective: to discuss the role of technology in health and social change and to increase the knowledge on benefits and dangers of its use
Topics:
- Techniques of health imagination
- Innovative methods of health marketing and promotion
- Health behaviors in Internet
- Telemedicine in health care
- Technology and artificial intelligence: their potential impact on life and health
- Immortality – is it an issue of faith, product of modern society or technological challenge?