Moving global health forward in academic institutions.

Abstract

Global health has attracted growing attention from academic institutions. Its emergence corresponds to the increasing interdependence that characterizes our time and provides a new worldview to address health challenges globally. There is still a large potential to better delineate the limits of the field, drawing on a wide perspective across sciences and geographical areas. As an implementation and integration science, academic global health aims primarily to respond to societal needs through research, education, and practice. From five academic institutions closely engaged with international Geneva, we propose here a definition of global health based on six core principles: 1) cross–border/multilevel approach, 2) inter–/trans–disciplinarity, 3) systems thinking, 4) innovation, 5) sustainability, and 6) human rights/equity. This definition aims to reduce the century–old divide between medicine and public health while extending our perspective to other highly relevant fields. Overall, this article provides an intellectual framework to improve health for all in our contemporary world with implications for academic institutions and science policy. Health and well–being are major challenges for the 21st century. While these key areas of societal development have gained prominence worldwide by receiving more political attention and funding than ever, the expression ‘global health’ has emerged to describe the profound shift in the nature of health within the context of globalization. Becoming ubiquitous, global health has generated increasing interest from academic institutions, which, as places of knowledge innovation, validation, transmission, and application, have a critical role to play in global health education, research, and practice [1,2]. In this article we use the terms ‘academic global health’ (AGH) to focus on the key role of academic institutions including university hospitals in the global health system. As an integration and implementation science [3], the primary goal of AGH is to foster transformative knowledge, which implies both new models of thinking and new types of research. At the operational level, this translates into a process of mutual learning for change and health improvement, through sharing and comparing across systems and cultures, using both qualitative and quantitative methods, validating new evidence internally and externally, and making interdisciplinary and international collaborations a prerequisite. From the viewpoint of five academic institutions closely engaged with Geneva, a leading city in global health and global governance, the present article attempts to reflect on the core principles, definition, and significance of AGH.