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Undergraduate
Teaching for medical students
Global health required elective
Following an initiative from Heidelberg
medical students and members of the
Institute of Public Health, a new elective
course ("Wahlfach") for medical students
on global health was launched in the winter
term 2010/11, coordinated by Dr. Sabine
Gabrysch. Various members of the Insti-
tute teach on the course which runs every
term over two weekends and provides an
overview of global health issues, including
sessions on health systems in low-income
countries, the MDGs and on social, ecolo-
gical and political determinants of health
such as climate change and gender issues.
Medical students enthusiastically took up
this chance to learn about global issues and
some got engaged in organising the course.
In May 2011 teachers and students orga-
nising global health courses in German
universities gathered in Marburg and foun-
ded the Global Health Alliance to exchange
experiences and teaching material and to
enable more German universities to offer
such courses. Furthermore, there are links
to teaching coordinators of global health
courses in other European countries, in
particular the UK and Italy.
Coordinator:
Dr. Sabine Gabrysch
Undergraduate teaching is a core activity of
our institute. We offer teaching in various
formats to medical students in the fields of
public health and health economics. Global
health teaching to medical students is a
new activity since 2010.
Global health is the health of populations
in a global context and transcends the
perspectives and concerns of individual na-
tions. The shortest and possibly best defini-
tion is "collaborative trans-national research
and action for promoting health for all."
The reasons for giving more attention to
global health education at German medical
universities go well beyond the needs of the
low- and middle-income countries. Several
studies have found that student exposure
to global health problems can affect career
choices in favour of disciplines and job set-
tings that serve disadvantaged populations,
both overseas and in their home countries.
There is a rapid rise in student interest
in overseas experiences. We did a survey
amongst medical students at the University
of Heidelberg: About 20-25% of the German
medical students intend to do a medical
elective in a low- and middle-income coun-
try; more than 60% expressed an interest in
more teaching on global health.
Dr. Sabine Gabrysch has successfully
introduced the elective course "global
health". In addition to this course we have
now opened some of our short courses (see
chapter postgraduate) for a limited number
of medical students. If more than 4 courses
are successfully completed, the student can
obtain a certificate in global health. Further-
more, we are engaging with the students to
develop a global health society, under the
leadership of Prof. Albrecht Jahn and Dr.
Olaf Horstick.