Transdisciplinary action for global health: the cases of vaccine hesitancy and Ebola epidemic

Abstract

Abstract Background The storm of increasing global disease burden and health threats calls for the combined utilisation of all disciplines to promote global health. In practice, natural sciences and clinical perspectives still dominate global health discussions and proposed solutions, with little room for effective collaborations with social sciences and humanities. The aim is to examine the extent of multidisciplinary collaborations in global health, identify and analyse the types of actors and disciplinary approaches employed, and the modes or patterns of multidisciplinarity. Vaccine hesitancy and refusal, and the Ebola epidemic of 2014-16 serve our analysis as two case studies of recent global health threats, that brought various global health actors together in diverse projects: Methods A literature review was conducted using the PubMed database and Google Scholar over a period of five years (2014-2019). Results The findings suggest that different social science and humanities disciplines were involved in solving global health threats at different stages and in various ways. We identified two types of collaboration: 1) Reactive collaborations where a team of health experts in the natural sciences turn to social sciences only because of challenges in implementing the project. 2) Interactive collaborations, that aim to involve social sciences in the early stages of research, development, and implementation of programs to understand and work effectively within the cultural and social contexts of communities affected by health emergencies. This type of interaction pays more attention to affected populations and the health workers, who are responsible for implementing the SDGs and global health interventions. Conclusions Disciplinary hierarchies are huge barriers to solving global challenges. A transdisciplinary framework has most potential to respond effectively to global health threats and action is needed to implement this approach in global health education.