New Academic Partnerships in Global Health: Innovations at Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Abstract

Global health has become an increasingly important focus of education, research, and clinical service in North American universities and academic health centers. Today there are at least 49 academically based global health programs in the United States and Canada, as compared with only one in 1999. A new academic society, the Consortium of Universities for Global Health, was established in 2008 and has grown significantly. This sharp expansion reflects convergence of 3 factors: (1) rapidly growing student and faculty interest in global health; (2) growing realization–powerfully catalyzed by the acquired immune deficiency syndrome epidemic, the emergence of other new infections, climate change, and globalization–that health problems are interconnected, cross national borders, and are global in nature; and (3) rapid expansion in resources for global health. This article examines the evolution of the concept of global health and describes the driving forces that have accelerated interest in the field. It traces the development of global health programs in academic health centers in the United States. It presents a blueprint for a new school-wide global health program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The mission of that program, Mount Sinai Global Health, is to enhance global health as an academic field of study within the Mount Sinai community and to improve the health of people around the world. Mount Sinai Global Health is uniting and building synergies among strong, existing global health programs within Mount Sinai; it is training the next generation of physicians and health scientists to be leaders in global health; it is making novel discoveries that translate into blueprints for improving health worldwide; and it builds on Mount Sinai’s long and proud tradition of providing medical and surgical care in places where need is great and resources few.

Development of a Global Health Teaching Fellowship for Global Health Care Capacity Building

“…6,11,12 Regardless of structure, the rapid growth in the number of fellowships offered speaks to the increasing demand for advanced training in global health 6 and a growing appreciation for how fellows can contribute during and after their fellowship to the changing landscape of global health. As North American global health programs evolve to reflect the broader changes in the field, [13][14][15] there is increasing recognition of the need for skilled educators to maintain focus on developing long-term, sustainable, and collaborative partnerships that emphasize local capacity building and empowerment. 16 As such, the development of teaching skills and experience have become important aspects of global health fellowship training.…”

Global health training starts at home: A unique US-based global health clinical elective for residents

“…One of the first multidisciplinary graduate medical education programs in Global Health, the GHRT incorporates residents and faculty from different disciplines (Anandaraja et al 2008;Landrigan et al 2011). A critical aspect of training in these competencies is providing global health experience within the US.…”

“…Considering the growing interest in global health among medical students and physicians-in-training (Panosian & Coates 2006;Landrigan et al 2011), and the significant increase in international health experiences for students since the 1980s and physicians-in-training (Torjesen et al 1999;Nelson et al 2011), current educational opportunities…”

The Response of Academic Medical Centers to the 2010 Haiti Earthquake: The Mount Sinai School of Medicine Experience

“…There are now nearly 50 United States and Canadian academically based global health programs compared with just 1 in existence a little over 10 years ago. 7 Interest in global health among students in multiple disciplines has also increased significantly in recent years. 8,9 Some may argue that it is not the place of AMCs to respond to natural disasters and that the response should be left to relief organizations dedicated and expert in emergency response.…”