Global health MSc programmes www.globalhealth.qmul.ac.uk
Global Health, Policy and Innovation Unit MSc global public health and policy MSc global health, law and governance MSc migration, culture and global health policy MSc international primary health care MSc health systems and global policy 2014-15
Aims and objectives High quality public health and primary health care are crucial to efficient, effective, and equitable health systems. The primary health care model provides the internationally established norm for attaining the World Health Organization’s commitment to ‘health for all’. This vision for developing public health and primary care is widely held but requires capacity building to produce research leaders, educators, and policy-makers. High quality education and training in public health and primary care is key to assuring the health of a population in any country. Underpinned by a commitment to principles of social justice and fairness, these five MSc programmes will provide students with an understanding of the significance of the current global challenges for health care and public health and will offer a multidisciplinary focus on global public health and primary care in a time of increasing health inequalities.
From the local to the global Based in Whitechapel in the heart of London’s East End, the Global Health, Policy and Innovation Unit brings together leading researchers and teachers in public health policy, primary care and community based health sciences all of whom share a commitment to reducing health inequalities and promoting universal health care in and beyond the UK. It leads global health teaching in Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, the first UK medical school to include global health in the undergraduate medical curriculum. It also hosts the Global Health Network, which brings together academics, doctors, nurses and practitioners and students working on local and global initiatives. It has strong links with the World Health Organization and partnerships in Africa, South Asia, Europe, and locally. It also supports the Global Health Watch initiative. There are opportunities following study for international secondments through the large programme of international research with which students can engage.
Outline description of the programmes The programmes are run by a team of experienced academics and teachers. Queen Mary has brought together core staff from UCL and the University of Edinburgh who had previously established highly prestigious programmes online and on campus. The teams and programmes have been brought to the heart of Queen Mary in the heart of London’s east end. The interdisciplinary programmes are taught by academics who are both leaders in their field – in public health sciences, law, sociology, geography, migration studies, economics, management, social policy, and clinical medicine – and influential in policy developments in the UK and internationally. They have come together to offer a multidisciplinary focus on global public health and primary care in a time of widening health inequalities. Our students come from all around the world. They include GPs, hospital doctors and paramedical staff, primary care workers, public health practitioners, policy makers, lawyers, researchers, and NGO staff, civil servants and administrators and managers as well as graduates in social science, science, law, medicine, nursing, and other related disciplines. The programmes are designed to be accessible to students from diverse professional and disciplinary backgrounds. Students seeking career change or enhancement will be well equipped for policy positions and for public health and clinical practice in the field and in academia, in the UK and abroad. Practising doctors, health professionals, and policy makers and managers and NGO staff will see their ability to plan and develop services greatly enhanced, and their effectiveness as change agents increased, so as to address the challenges facing public health and primary care today. Through the knowledge and analytic skills they have gained, students gain the critical insights and evidence base from which to advocate on behalf of their patients and communities.
The programmes Global public health and policy This programme builds on models of social determinants of health and international health concepts of policy-making at the extraterritorial level. Students will specialise in areas as diverse as trade in health, global burden of disease, evidence based policy making, pharmaceuticals, clinical trials, and ethics. The programme is of particular interest to public health doctors and other health practitioners in public and primary health care, but will also attract policy makers and NGO workers and social and laboratory scientists. Specialist module: advanced social determinants of healths
Global health, law and governance This programme, a collaboration between the Centre for Primary Care and Public Health, the Department of Law, and the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, analyses the key international organisations and legal instruments that impact on national public health policies. It critically examines the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization and key international conventions and protocols. This programme will appeal to all those - medical practitioners, civil servants, lawyers, social and political scientists, and NGO workers – with an involvement in health policy and health systems who are seeking a “bigger picture” approach. Specialist module: public health, international law and governance; human rights and public health
Migration, culture and global health policy This programme focuses on public health issues related to migrant communities across the globe. It begins by considering the nature of migrant and diaspora communities and the ways that health within these communities is related to social, political, economic, and cultural factors. It assesses the important role that culture plays in determining health outcomes by focusing on several ethnographies of migrant communities. It considers the range of health problems faced by migrant communities in host countries. Relevant theoretical
themes will be explored in detail by considering international case studies of mental health, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, and risk perception and lifestyle. Specialist modules: migration and health
International primary health care Students explore how the principles and practice of effective primary health care may be achieved in different countries, health care systems, and local settings. Those with a particular clinical interest (eg, diabetes, women’s health) will be encouraged to apply their knowledge to this area. There is no specialist module for this programme. Instead, primary care has been brought into all public health and health systems modules, and students will work on assignments focused on primary health and their own specialisms.
Health systems and global policy This programme considers how the principles and practice of effective and fair public health care can inform health policy and health care systems in national and local settings. An important focus of the programme will be the theoretical and practical principles of solidarity in health care systems. The programme analyses the principles of health systems, and makes global linkages to social, political, economic, and cultural issues in individual countries and themes. Students will understand why structures and functions matter and be equipped with knowledge of technical bureaucracies and mechanisms required to implement universal health care. Students will gain an understanding of competition and trade law and regulation and its application to public health care. This programme is of particular interest to medical and clinical practitioners, civil servants, public health practitioners, social and political scientists, lab scientists, and NGO workers. Specialist module: advanced health systems
Structure of the programmes In the first semester the five programmes share core modules which include key concepts, research methods and analysis. These present students with relevant methodological issues and critical appraisal and policy analysis skills while providing interdisciplinary foundations. In the second semester students gain a more detailed understanding of areas relevant to their programmes and interests through specialist and elective modules. Each programme is differentiated by a designated specialist module and by the focus of the dissertation. Throughout the programmes, strong emphasis is placed on research methods and analytic techniques for practical application or further research, and research methods are integrated into many modules. Students will have a unique opportunity to engage with current research programmes, the approaches and findings of which will inform the teaching programme.
Modes of study The MSc programmes can be completed in one year on a full-time basis, up to three years part-time, or up to five years on a “variable mode” basis (ie, modular or portfolio).
Flexible learning While this is an academic programme of study primarily intended to lead to a postgraduate degree, students can choose to take individual modules either for assessed study or for non-assessed contribution towards their professional development.
Fees Core modules • Epidemiology and statistics
Specialist and elective modules • Advanced social determinants of health
• Health, illness and society
• Public health, international law and governance
• Health inequalities and social determinants of health • Health systems, economics, and policy
• Human rights and public health • Migration and health • Advanced health systems
Dissertation
• Globalisation and contemporary medical ethics • Knowledge innovation and management • Global politics of health
The fees below are given as an estimate of likely fees. Up-to-date and correct fees can be found at www.qmul.ac.uk/postgraduate/ tuitionfees/index.html Full-time: UK/EU £7,500; overseas £13,000 Part-time: UK/EU £3,750; overseas £6,500 per year (for two years, or pro rata for longer)
Key staff Professor Allyson Pollock is professor of public health research and policy and co-director of the Global Health, Policy and Innovation Unit. An internationally known scholar in public health medicine, she has been described by The Lancet as one “of the UK’s leading public intellectuals in medicine”. Through her research she brings the wide range of public health disciplines – epidemiological, geographical, legal, economic, political – to bear on important issues in public health and health policy, and particularly in relation to how financing and policy impact on universal and equitable health care provision. Her research covers globalisation, marketisation and privatisation of public services, pharmaceuticals, and health inequalities. She has strong links to developing public health programmes in low and middle income countries.
Professor Trish Greenhalgh is professor of primary health care and codirector of the Global Health, Policy and Innovation Unit. Described as “one of the international stars of general practice” she is the author of eight textbooks including Primary health care: theory and practice and How to read a paper: the basics of evidence-based medicine. She leads a research programme on new technologies in health care, crosscultural health and the personal dimension of health and illness (narrative based medicine). She was programme director for the world’s first fully online MSc programme in primary health care from 1998 to 2010. In 2001, she received an OBE for services to medicine.
Professor Richard Ashcroft is professor of bioethics within the Department of Law and is co-director of the Centre for the Study of Incentives in Health. His research covers human rights theory, law and practice in bioethics policy, and ethical challenges in public health. His particular interest is biomedical research ethics: he is a member of the Ethics and Policy Advisory Committee of the UK Medical Research Council and Director of the Appointing Authority for Phase I Ethics Committees.
Professor Johanna Gibson is Herchel Smith Professor of Intellectual Property Law and director of the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute in the Centre for Commercial Law Studies. She is also the director of the independent research charity, the Intellectual Property Institute. She is Chair of the UK Intellectual Property Office Expert Advisory Committee on Trade and Development and a member of the DGResearch and Innovation expert panel on international knowledge transfer. Johanna holds first class degrees in cultural and critical theory, animal sciences, and law.
Sally Kerry was one of the first statisticians to specialise in primary care, and wrote a series of statistics notes in the BMJ to provide researchers with practical solutions to the issues of sample size and analysis. She has co-authored two books, Presenting statistics from proposal to publication’, and A practical guide to cluster randomised trials in health services research (2012).
Dr Elias Kondilis graduated from the Medical School of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, completing his training in general psychiatry while also gaining a PhD on health policy and economics. His research now focuses on the impact of economic crisis on population health and healthcare reform in Europe. He is a member of the Board of the International Association of Health Policy in Europe (IAHPE). Dr Kondilis is the programmes lead for MSc, global public health and policy, MSc, international primary health care, and MSc, health systems and global policy .
Dr Dave McCoy is a senior clinical lecturer in the social determinants of health, and chair of Medact. He worked in South Africa for 10 years in rural hospitals, public health and health systems development, higher education, and NGOs. He is a member of the steering council for the Peoples’ Health Movement and was managing editor for both the first and second Global Health Watch (an alternative world health report).
Dr Colin Millard has a background is in medical anthropology, and the social anthropology of South Asia and Tibet. His wide research interests include the anthropology of ritual and religion, Tibetan medicine, the anthropology of the body, and globalisation and the impact of modernity on traditional medical systems. He also has research interests in global health policy and the social and cultural aspects of health and disease.
Professor Maxine Robertson is professor of innovation and organisation in the School of Business and Management. Her research focuses on the inter-related areas of networked innovation, knowledge work, and professional identity. Most of Maxine’s research is conducted within the biomedical sector, drawing upon the drug development process as a prime exemplar of networked innovation. Maxine is a member of the UK National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence Implementation Strategy Group.
Peter Roderick is a senior research fellow. He qualified as a barrister in 1982, and has since practised law across a wide range of subject areas, specialising in public interest environmental law. He wrote several legal analyses and briefings on the Health and Social Care Bill during its passage in 2011-12 through the UK Parliament, and is currently researching on patent and pharmaceutical law.
Dr Dianna Smith is a lecturer in trauma epidemiology. She trained in geography with a focus on public health, and is working on several projects that assess the relationship between local environments, populations, and incidence of injury or ill health. She has particular expertise in small-area health estimation and mapping health data using GIS.
Queen Mary University of London Queen Mary, University of London is recognised as one of the UK’s leading research-based institutions, and has recently joined the Russell Group. Its mission is to continue the highest standards of research and provide the finest possible education to its students within and outside the UK, while remaining committed to the idea of the university as a community of scholars, mutually supportive and working both to further knowledge creation and benefit the wider society. London is one of the world’s great cities, culturally rich and always inspiring and exciting. Living in London gives you access to the finest museums, art galleries, theatre, and music, and every type of food. East London is now the hub of London’s creative, technological, and cultural community, and represents the best of the city – rich in history, always looking to the future, ethnically diverse, and with a uniquely British character. The 2012 Olympic Games, held just two miles from Queen Mary, were one more extraordinary development in the life of London, leaving behind some of the UK’s best ever sporting and recreation facilities, as well as some of its largest urban parks.
Further information
Informal approaches are welcome at any time. Please contact Dr James Lancaster +44 (0)20 7882 7212 j.p.lancaster@qmul.ac.uk Centre for Primary Care and Public Health, 58 Turner Street, London E1 2AB This publication has been produced by Marketing and Communications for the Centre for Primary Care and Public Health – 445_13 Any section of this publication is available upon request in accessible formats (large print, audio, etc). For further information and assistance, please contact: Diversity Specialist, hr-equality@qmul.ac.uk, 020 7882 5585