College of Public Health

News Story

Thinking Globally: College of Public Health digs deeper into global health

Posted 04/06/2009

Researchers and students in the College of Public Health are advancing knowledge about global health. They're visiting places such as Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Sichuan Province in China and the Republic of Uganda in East Africa to learn how these and other remote areas in the world are impacted by public health threats such as limited access to quality health care.

"Public health is the foundation of global health," said Mary Ellen Wewers, professor in the Division of Health Behavior and Health Promotion. "There's a tremendous interest in global health among students. They want to make the world a better place."

Global health is the study of improving the health of human populations worldwide. It addresses public health threats, including infectious diseases, overcrowded living conditions and inadequate drinking water. Public health practitioners strive to reduce the impact of these threats. For example, they're providing access to safe water, adequate nutrition, immunizations, antibiotics and reproductive health care.

Wewers is active in the push for global health offerings at Ohio State. She's helping to establish The Ohio State University Center for Global Health. The initiative will unite several Ohio State colleges, including the College of Public Health, with a mission to prepare students to become globally informed health care educators, clinicians and scientists.

Funding for the center comes from the National Institutes of Health, which has set aside $4.6 million to expand its network of global health education programs. Ohio State is among 12 campuses in the United States, China and Mexico to receive approximately $400,000 during the next three years through the organization's Framework Programs for Global Health. Ohio State's program will include global health courses for college-preparatory students, a minor in global health for undergraduates and an interdisciplinary specialization for graduate students.

Interest in the proposed programs is already high, says Pamela Potter, assistant director of the Ohio State Office of Global Health Education.

"There has been a definite increase in interest for global health programming," Potter said. "I've had inquiries from medical students, optometry students, a nurse in radiation oncology, a psychiatric care technician and people from international studies and public health."

Wewers also teaches an introductory global health class to incoming freshmen called Global Health in the 21st Century. Students learn about threats to global health including infectious diseases and malnutrition. They also learn about the social, behavioral and biological factors that influence these threats.

Isabel Pereira de Almeida is a freshman at Ohio State who's studying to be an epidemiologist. She says she considers herself a global citizen because her father is from Brazil and her mother is from the United States. She took Wewers' class in fall quarter 2008 and said it was a helpful step toward her goal of becoming a doctor.

"I want to treat patients outside of the country," de Almeida said. "I thought this global-health class would be the perfect starting-point for me so I could learn what's going on in the world."

Chris Rea, a second-year student in the College's Master of Public Health program, traveled to Bangladesh with Assistant Professor Song Liang in September 2008 for a conference on climate change. Rea spent a portion of his trip visiting rural areas of the country.

"It really changes your perspective on what the majority of the world is facing and issues that they deal with day-to-day," Rea said. "You really appreciate what we have here and how wealthy this country is. When you go to some of these other places, you get to experience and see firsthand what millions of people are living like."

Credits: Story by Wendy Pramik and photo by Chris Rea, a second year MPH student.

 

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The Ohio State University's College Public Health is an integral part of the most comprehensive health sciences campus in the nation. The college was created in February 2007 by the University Board of Trustees. First established in 1995 as part of the College of Medicine, we are the first and only accredited school of public health in the state of Ohio. Specializations within the college include biostatistics, epidemiology, health behavior and health promotion, environmental health sciences, health services management and policy, veterinary public health and clinical investigations. The college is currently ranked 21st in public health graduate schools by US News & World Report. Its Master of Health Administration program is ranked 12th.