South-to-North, Cross-Disciplinary Training in Global Health Practice: Ten Years of Lessons Learned from an Infectious Disease Field Course in Jamaica

Abstract

Abstract. Global commerce, travel, and emerging and resurging infectious diseases have increased awareness of global health threats and opportunities for collaborative and service learning. We review course materials, knowledge archives, data management archives, and student evaluations for the first 10 years of an intensive summer field course in infectious disease epidemiology and surveillance offered in Jamaica. We have trained 300 students from 28 countries through collaboration between the University of the West Indies and U.S. partner universities. Participants were primarily graduate students in public health, but also included health professionals with terminal degrees, and public health nurses and inspectors. Strong institutional synergies, committed faculty, an emphasis on scientific and cultural competencies, and use of team-based field research projects culminate in a unique training environment that provides participants with careerdeveloping experiences. We share lessons learned over the past decade, and conclude that South-to-North leadership is critical in shaping transdisciplinary, cross-cultural, global health practice.

Evidence of Reciprocity in Reports on International Partnerships

“…On a positive note, identification of local needs and priorities is on the rise. For example, more North partners are ensuring that their proposed projects involve research or program development that is relevant to the health issues of underserved populations, fulfill a need that is agreed on by the host organization such as faculty development [15], or are based on local community needs assessments [30,32]. This is consistent with the current focus on host community and institutional needs.…”

Recruiting Trainees for a Global Health Research Workforce: The National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars Program Selection Process

“…These opportunities are typically limited to the institutions' own students, leaving at present only the Doris Duke International Clinical Research Fellowship 9 and Fulbright-Fogarty Fellowships in Public Health 10 open to doctoral applicants from any US university. The new program does not include explicit twinning of international scholars to the US scholars, an aspect of the FICRS Program that enriched the experience 11 and post-training networks 12 of its US and LMIC Scholars and likely enhanced capacity-building at the LMIC sites substantially.…”

Effective Strategies for Global Health Research, Training and Clinical Care: A Narrative Review

“…The interest in global health has increased dramatically in the past decade. More medical students are taking international clinical and research opportunities ( Smith & Weaver, 2006 ; Drain et al, 2007 ; Scarlett et al, 2011 ), and global health courses doubled in a three year time span ( Scarlett et al, 2011 ). Recognition that global health inequities arise from the conditions in which people live, has caused global health programs to consider the social, economic, political, cultural and environmental determinants of health ( World Health Organization, 2011 ).…”