Module 1
15 Courses
Global Health: An Interdisciplinary Overview Platform: Coursera Institution: University of Geneva Started: 06/03/2019 Finished: 11/03/2019 Global Health and Humanitarianism Platform: Coursera Institution: The University of Manchester Started: 08/09/2017 Finished: 11/03/2019 A History of Public Health in Post-War Britain Platform: Coursera Institution: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Started: 09/07/2018 Finished: 10/07/2018 One Health: Connecting Humans, Animals and the Environment Platform: FutureLearn Institution: University of Basel Started: 18/05/2017 Finished: 11/03/2019 The Impact of Climate Change on Health Platform: FutureLean Institution: European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Started: 11/03/2019 Finished: 12/03/2019 Plagues, Pestilence and Pandemics: Are You Ready? Platform: FutureLearn Institution: Griffith University Started: 07/08/2018 Finished: 08/08/2018 COVID-19: Tackling the Novel Coronavirus Platform: FutureLearn Institutions: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and UK Public Health Rapid Support Team Started: 22/04/2020 Finished: 23/04/2020 COVID-19: Diagnostics and Testing Platform: FutureLearn Institutions: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine , FIND and African Society for Laboratory Medicine Started: 28/04/2020 Finished: 12/05/2020 COVID-19: Pandemics, Modelling, and Policy Platform: FutureLearn Institutions: The Open University Started: 28/04/2020 Finished: 12/05/2020 COVID-19 Critical Care: Understanding and Application Platform: FutureLearn Institutions: University of Edinburgh Started: 16/05/2020 Finished: 20/05/2020 Managing COVID-19 in General Practice Platform: FutureLearn Institutions: St. George’s University Started: 20/05/2020 Finished: 20/05/2020 Healthcare Research Platform: FutureLearn Institution: Coventry University Started: 13/02/2018 Finished: 21/02/2018 The Science of Medicines Platform: FutureLearn Institution: Monash University Started: 23/08/2018 Finished: 01/09/2018 Medical Humanity: Engaging Patients and Communities in Healthcare Platform: FutureLearn Institution: Taipei Medical University Started: 15/06/2018 Finished: 23/06/2018 Systems Thinking In Public Health Platform: Coursera Institution: Johns Hopkins University Started: 28/02/2019 Finished: 11/03/2019
“If anything kills over 10 million people in the next few decades, it’s most likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than a war. Not missiles, but microbes.“
Bill Gates, TED Talk: The next outbreak? We’re not ready, 2015
Global health is public health. You only have to look at something like the COVID-19 pandemic to realise that the health of all living organisms is just one interconnected system. Global health can also very easily fall into a very fragile state when it does not receive the proper investment, care and attention, as the COVID-19 outbreak has also illustrated.
During my undergraduate studies, I became increasingly interested in looking after my health and, by extension, I started to become more knowledgeable about the field of public health. I was going to incorporate my increasing interest in achieving optimum health into my MTA Portfolio and, because Global Citizenship was already a concentration, it became obvious that I should also add a module on global health.
Studying global health also gave me another lens through which to understand the concept of systems thinking: when view systems from a broad perspective that includes seeing overall structures, patterns and cycles in systems, rather than seeing only specific events.
Then COVID-19 came along and gave me an even more immediate lens through which to understand the systemic nature of global health. This is why, long after I thought I had finished with this module, I came back to it and added a few extra courses about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some of the courses in this module already covered the topic of pandemics and, while I honestly didn’t see COVID-19 coming, I certainly wasn’t surprised when it did turn up. All the leading experts have been saying for years that we have been overdue a pandemic and now that COVID-19 has arrived, it only illustrates the vital importance of maintaining the wellbeing of our shared global health system.