[afro-nets] Supercourse Newsletter, January 15, 2006

["Ronald E. LaPorte" <super1+@pitt.edu>]

Supercourse Newsletter, January 15, 2006
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http://www.pitt.edu/~super1
 
Dear Friends:
 
The time is always right to do what is right.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
 
Schools of Global Health (SGH): It appears that the ?time is 
right? to create Honda CRX models of Schools Global Health. I 
received many letters from people who wanted to join. Scientists 
from 26 countries expressed an interest. If we start with a cer-
tificate course this would be 15 hours for the certificate. Fif-
teen hours is about 5 courses. A general work load for faculty 
world wide is about 4 courses, therefore to teach the courses in 
any university is slightly over 1 full time equivalent instruc-
tor. This could be 4 associate professors teaching a course or 
two each.
 
We have suggested the SGH not be in medical schools as health is 
both global and interdisciplinary. Take the Bam Earthquake, en-
gineers, psychologists, nutritionists, business etc., were 
needed as much as surgeons.
 
We would like to find the best teachers, at that best Universi-
ties in countries, and create an honors program in Global Health 
to attract the best students. If we limit students to a small 
number, there would be competition to join.
 
It would take about 2 weeks to create a backbone curricula for 
the program. We envision a generic Supercourse of prevention. 
However, depending upon the interest a program could specialize, 
e.g. in Tehren, Earthquake disasters, in Sri Lanka, Tsunamis, in 
Turkey, Avian Flu, Environmental health, etc.
 
The primary teacher need not be an expert in prevention as the 
Supercourse would provide all the curricula materials. Moreover, 
we would provide 24 x 7 help desk support. Many of our global 
faculty are willing to answer. Within a short period of time the 
help desk would not be needed.
 
Virtually all the teaching would be done within say the Univer-
sity of Cambodia. However, we are considering establishing web 
casting lectures, or PowerPoint linked with voice as not these 
are very inexpensive.
 
A primary goal of these Global Health schools is to create a 
global network of faculty, thus faculty teaching in Vietnam 
would be in connected with those in Paris, Melbourne, Novosi-
birsk and Rwanda. We also want to do the same for the students, 
as the students would not only be at their local university, but 
they would also be students of the world.
 
There has been some suggestion that the students can do intern-
ships in centers world wide. This may be costly. What might be 
better is if these students did internships in Ministries of 
Health.
 
The certificates could from the Schools, or from the Super-
course. It is unlikely that the certificates could be from an 
American University. The Uni. Pitts charges $750/hour or over 
$10,000. We might be able to link with the UN or WHO. We would 
appreciate your thoughts. The goal is to make all schools self 
sufficient, with the global faculty acting as ?coaches?.
 
It is very exciting as a center in Shanghai already has funding 
to make this move forward.
 
Tribal Health Schools:
 
Dean Seneca from the CDC had a great idea that could have impli-
cations for many other populations. He suggested that we develop 
Tribal Health Schools as part of the Indian Health Service in 
the US. He also suggested that these schools could be models for 
indigenous colleges world wide. Indigenous populations often 
have major health problems. In addition there are few people 
from indigenous populations working in the area of health. If 
you are interested in helping to develop this, please let Dean 
and I know.
 
Building the Schools:
 
As can be seen it is indeed possible to establish schools of 
Global Health. We need to create a business model before we can 
develop these to make sure that we have a sustainable source of 
funding.
 
Please help: If you are interested in developing a SGH, or if 
you have any comments, please send a note to 
mailto:ronaldlaporte@gmail.com
 
Onward to teaching the world
 
Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
 
I appreciate all the extremely creative people in the Super-
course.
 
Remember:
1. you can now download the Supercourse lectures in PowerPoint.
2. Wendy developed the Google search engine so it will search 
inside the slides.
3. If you are consider training in Global Health and Epidemiol-
ogy consider Pittsburgh (mailto:ronaldlaporte@aol.com)
 
Ron, Dean, Faina, Mita, Soni, Eugene, Ali, Rania, Abed, Wen, 
Yang, Saida, Julia, Shai, Tomoko, MD, Mutsuk, Khaled