Global health education for medical students: New learning opportunities and strategies

Abstract

BACKGROUND: A new course was offered to introduce basic global health concepts to all first year Johns Hopkins medical students, that took advantage of new distance learning capacity to connect medical students in Baltimore with students and faculty in Uganda, Ethiopia, Pakistan and India. AIMS: Lessons learned from the launch of this new course will optimize the conduct of future global health courses at JHUSOM and may be of value to other institutions. METHODS: Feedback from the Hopkins students was obtained through an on-line structured course evaluation questionnaire. Unstructured student and faculty feedback from partners institutions was solicited via email. RESULTS: Students reported high levels of satisfaction with the course content and format, as well as achievement of course competencies and objectives. CONCLUSIONS: Distance learning can support unique, high-quality medical educational experiences that leverage technology and global connectivity, but also the power of group learning and "South-to-North" capacity building.