Global Health Courses

Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health offers traditional and online courses to Vanderbilt undergraduate seniors, medical students, nursing students, and graduate-level students in other programs, as well as Meharry Medical College students. Log in to YES (Your Enrollment Services) for additional course details and to enroll. For more information, contact Annie Smart.

2013-2014 Global Health Courses

Course Descriptions

Foundations of Global Health

This course introduces students to key topics, concepts and methods in global health, examining determinants of complex issues and exploring multidimensional approaches and interventions with a particular emphasis on low resource settings. Health and developmental issues across nations and cultures that require collective (partnership-based) action are highlighted by an interdisciplinary faculty using didactic, interactive and practical elements of instruction. At the conclusion of the course, students should be able to discuss research and evaluation methodologies commonly used in the field, identify key global health questions and design suitable projects that address the question. [3 credit hours]

Foundational Skills in Global Health

Core field tools, needs assessment, implementation techniques and methodologies in global health program implementation.  Management and leadership of global health programs and organizations in complex and challenging environments. Underpinnings of health systems, data collection, and analysis, program design and management. [3 credit hours]

Laboratory Technologies in Low-Resource Settings

Core laboratory principles, technologies, and applications used in the delivery of care and the performance of clinical research in resource-limited settings; how innovation is improving care and expanding field-based capacity around the globe. [2 credit hours]

Informatics for Global Health Professionals

This course serves as an introduction to medical informatics with an emphasis on global health care settings. As global health bridges both patient care and public health, so informatics in this context covers both patient-based information systems and public health information systems. International cooperation on health information system issues has resulted in both extensive knowledge repositories and a powerful set of tools and techniques that can be used by practitioners and researchers. The module consists of lectures with discussion and analysis as well as hands-on instruction with some software applications and electronic resources. [1 credit hour]

Leadership Development in Global Health

This course is an introduction to leadership theory and practice, directed toward those who seek leadership positions in the area of global health. The course will draw on students’ own experiences with leadership and seek to extend their capacities to effectively lead in organizations. Students will identify dimensions and competencies of leaders, define the abilities and traits of effective leadership and explore the pathways to developing those requisite abilities as individuals and within systems. [1 credit hour]

Ethics in Global Health

This course provides an overview of ethical issues and standards in global health, particularly with respect to ethics in international research. Its aim is to provide students in the health professions and others interested in global health with a framework in which to recognize, examine, resolve, and prevent ethical conflicts in their international work. Through readings, lectures and discussion, students will explore diverse historical and contemporary international perspectives on the concepts of ethics and health as well as formulating recommendations for prevention and resolution of ethical conflicts related to global health. [1 credit hour]

Medical Anthropology

This course provides a framework for students to investigate and learn about the study of pain, illness, suffering, and healing in cultural around the world. This course is designed to introduce students to a broad range of medical anthropology topics, theoretical approaches and research techniques by examining case studies on chronic illness, sorcery and traditional healing, modern pandemics, as well as treatment and illness expectations. Within these discussions, our focus will be comparative, investigating illness, misfortune, and healing in a number of societies from Mozambique, Uganda, South Africa, France, the United States and Japan. Students will develop an appreciation for the culturally specific nature of illness, allowing them to better understand and treat patients from diverse cultural backgrounds. [1 credit hour]

Case Studies in Tropical Diseases (online)

This online course will introduce tropical diseases and parasitology in a clinical case study format. It is designed for clinicians who wish to refine their diagnostic and therapeutic skills in dealing with diseases not seen often in the US, but prevalent in tropical environs. Non-clinical graduate students in other disciplines who have advanced medical/clinical vocabularies also can be considered. [1 credit hour]

Introduction to Quality Improvement

This course will introduce the concept and methodology of Quality Improvement (QI) science as it applies to health care delivery in the US and in the developing world. The course is designed to give students the background to understand the role that QI plays in reducing medical errors, improving service efficiency and adding value in health care systems. Students will be given hands-on experience in QI by developing and implementing a personal improvement project over the course of the month. Students will develop an understanding of how to bring about change in health care systems by analysis of health care processes, how to develop pilot interventions, use data to evaluate changes, and empower individuals to be agents of improvement. [1 credit hour]

Global Health Politics and Policy

Global Health Politics and Policy introduces core global health problems facing the world’s populations today and examines the efforts taken to improve health at a global level. We will focus on the social and political movements of global health issues and how these forces created and shaped global health policy both in the U.S. and among the G8 nations from 2000‐2011. [1 credit hour]

One Health: The Intersection of Animal, Environmental, and Human Health (online)

One Health is dedicated to improving the lives of all species through the integration of human medicine, veterinary medicine and environmental science. Lectures and case studies will illustrate how human, animal and environmental health are linked and students will design innovative, interdisciplinary interventions for a global health problem. [1 credit hour]

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