Global Health Winter School Dresden
Global Health Initiative of the Department of General Practice at Technische Universität Dresden
In 2022, a group of motivated staff members at the Department of General Practice (Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, TUD) in collaboration with the Department of Political Sciences (TUD) launched a Global Health initiative to bring these themes onto the agenda of our university.
As a first of a kind initiative at the TUD, a Global Health Winter School Dresden was organised in March 2023 partly financed by the Faculty of Medicine with the support of Kreisärztekammer Dresden. During one week, 30 students in medicine, public health, environmental sciences and psychology came together to learn about global health. There were several interactive case studies, to provide students with tools and competencies for problem solving, and several input lectures with lecturers from i.e. Universities of Dresden, Heidelberg and Bielefeld, as well as Robert Koch Institute, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Doctors Without Borders, Psychosoziales Zentrum Dresden, Health for Future and the City of Dresden. In addition, speakers joint online from Sydney, Rome and Uzhgorod, Ukraine.
The week aimed to introduce students to global health concepts such as burden of disease, health metrics, social determinants of health, global health governance and financing, planetary and urban health, migration and health, pandemic and disasters preparedness, as well as health systems response, with a focus on primary healthcare to achieve universal access and coverage. In addition to lectures and case studies, an E-Learning module was set up in Moodle with learning objectives, E-Lectures, reading lists and a description of the case studies to enable adequate preparation for the course days.
Because one important determinant of health relates to the availability of essential health services and universal coverage, the organizers of the Global Health Winter School are convinced that many global health problems can be most effectively tackled through the lens of primary healthcare (PHC). One of the aims of the Winter School Global Health was therefore to advocate for global PHC approaches and their implementation in academic teaching and research.
As a result, our long-term aim is to anchor an interdisciplinary Global Health Course Module in the regularly curriculum of our university. Additionally, there is a need to foster research projects in the area of global health and primary care approaches.
Please contact us, if you would like to take part in the initiative or in case you have other questions:
Team Global Health, Department of General Practice, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden:
Stephanie Taché, MD, MPH
Dr. rer. medic. Henna Riemenschneider, MA, MPH
Dr. med. Martin Bortz, M.Sc. (Global Health)
Martina Bothur, project assistance