Global health beyond geographical boundaries: reflections from global health education

Abstract

Our experience suggests that global health is often taught as ‘public health somewhere else’. However, the experience and demands of global health students and pressing global health issues in all settings require a different approach. We, therefore, suggest that a more useful definition of global health is to move beyond the notion of geographical boundaries, with ‘global’ instead referring to a holistic, multidisciplinary perspective of health. We suggest that current global health educational practices include a broader disciplinary scope and focus on educational examples from throughout the world, including one’s own local context.

Topics & Concepts