Is time running out? The urgent need for appropriate global health curricula in Germany

Abstract

Recently, representatives of politics, health officials and academia in Germany have advocated a greater role for Germany in matters concerning global health. However, health professionals in Germany are rarely taught about global health topics and accordingly real expertise in this field is lacking. To advance knowledge and competencies at German universities and adequately equip health professionals to achieve Germany’s political goals, global health curricula must be developed at medical schools and other institutions. Such ambitions raise questions about the required content and dimensions of global health curricula as the field is currently highly heterogeneous and ill defined. To systematically identify strengths and shortcomings of current curricula, we scrutinised the global health curriculum at our institution, Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin, using an analytical framework that integrates the various approaches of global health. Our analysis identified that four (technical, social justice, security and humanitarian) of five approaches are present in our core global health curriculum. Local and global aspects of the field are equally represented. We propose that the use of such a structured analytical framework can support the development of GH curricula for all health professionals—in Germany and elsewhere. But it can also help to evaluate existing curricula like ours at Charité. This framework has the potential to support the design of comprehensive GH trainings, serving German aspirations in politics and academia to promote health worldwide.

Support for global health and pandemic preparedness in medical education in Germany: Students as change agents

“…10,37-41 Bozorgmehr 18,38 introduced an analytical framework for global health education, which expands on the social determinants of health. Most recently, Schuster et al 9 suggested a framework which is based on a Canadian model comprising five major dimensions: security, technical, entrepreneurial, humanitarian and social justice approaches. 42 This framework informed the development of global health programmes in medical education at Charité University Berlin.…”

“…42 This framework informed the development of global health programmes in medical education at Charité University Berlin. 9 It is important to note that most complex suggestions for strengthening global health in medical education have been introduced, at first and foremost, by the national medical student association and their various representatives over time. [11][12][13]17,18,27,28,[43][44][45][46] These authors have identified a wide range of topics and challenges relevant to global health education, including a health systems approach and the social determinants of health, among others.…”

“…2,3,7 However, education often remains marginal on the health political stage and activities are limited to few universities and networks. 9,27,43 Importantly, policy incentives for global health education also lack adequate coordination across the Health and Education Ministries.…”

“…Global health is still marginal in Germany's medical education. 8,9 The picture is only slightly more positive in public health, but worse in other health professions. Thus, the health workforce is poorly prepared for new challenges, and this also impacts in policy expertise.…”

“…However, the education system does not keep pace with the new political and epidemiological demand for global health. Global health is still marginal in Germany's medical education 8,9 . The picture is only slightly more positive in public health, but worse in other health professions.…”