SPOTLIGHT ON INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES:
New Global Health Courses Focus on Nutrition and Financing
Global Nutrition and Global Health Financing will be the topics of two new courses offered this Spring, 2010. These courses are geared toward undergraduate students in the global health certificate program and graduate students enrolled in DGHI’s Master of Science in Global Health. They explore relevant global health issues that offer students a broader understanding of the challenges that face resource-limited communities around the world.
Global Nutrition: Over and Under Nutrition in Developing Countries (GLHLTH 220S) will discuss the epidemiological, biological and behavioral consequences that lead to malnutrition as well as obesity. The course will also have a strong emphasis on ethical and political issues related to nutrition policy and programs in poor nations. Taught by DGHI faculty member Sara Benjamin, the course will culminate in a final project in which students will develop a program to address a particular nutrition-related health issue in a developing country. Students will also have the chance to engage with key players in the field.
“Students will have the opportunity to interact with researchers and other students currently engaged in projects related to nutrition in developing countries,” said Benjamin, assistant professor, Department of Community and Family Medicine. “We are excited to enable students interested in nutrition to be able to learn about opportunities to get involved in those projects.”
Global Health Supply, Financing and Organization (GLHLTH184.02/ECON184.02/ECON284.02) will explore how financing drives pharmaceutical and vaccine research, health delivery and technology adoption in low and middle income countries. The issue is vital for delivering health care in resource-poor countries.
“The average income in some of these countries is roughly a dollar a day per capita,” said Frank Sloan, DGHI affiliate and professor of health policy and economics. “If you don’t have financing, you don’t have health care. If you don’t have physicians, nurses, hospitals and vaccines, you don’t have health care.”
The course will explore the organization of health care, the costs and benefits associated with health technologies and the availability and financing of pharmaceutics in resource-poor settings. Students will also study whether the public or private sector is more effective in delivering health care services.
--from the Duke Global Health Institute--more information available here.
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