Global Health Stream

What is the UOttawa Faculty of Medicine Global Health Stream?
The Global Health Concentration is an optional curriculum aimed at undergraduate medical students who wish to pursue further education and training in global health. The curriculum features learning objectives that centre on seven major themes in global health. Students complete these learning objectives through didactic teaching, academic self-study, and experiential learning. The Global Health Concentration is a self-directed learning program that allows students to choose from a variety of learning materials and to select the learning styles that best suit them. Students who would like to earn a Certificate of Achievement in Global Health by completing an academic project are encouraged to use their skills and experience to present their work by various means, including photo journals, video journals, and poster presentations.
You will find further details about the Global Health Concentration in the Student Handbook, which is available in LearnMed.   
For more information on the Global Health Concentration, contact the Global Health Program Coordinator at globalhealth@uOttawa.ca.

Get Involved.

How do I participate in the Global Health Stream?
  1. Send the following documents to the Global Health Program Coordinator:
    • a CV
    • A brief description of why you want to participate and your experience in global health (if any)
  2. Use your student credentials to log into LearnMed
    • Read through the introduction page carefully
    • Download and read through the Global Health Concentration Student Handbook
  3. Start working through the curriculum
 
To get involved with the stream, check out the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2086908161536653/

How do I go about completing the list of  global health objectives?
Some objectives are covered within the undergraduate medical curriculum (ie. through certain SIM lectures), while other objectives can be met through various other means. Such as, through attending Global Health Stream Reflection Sessions, reading up on material, online training modules, attending guest lecturers, attending interest group talks, attending international health and development course offered through uOttawa, etc., the list goes on!
 
​As long as you are able to speak towards these experiences and reflect on them briefly and justify the learning somehow within the objectives tracking document, it should suffice!
Choosing a Global Health Project
The Scholarly Project part of the Global Health Concentration (GHC) offers an in-depth investigation of global health topics of interest to students with the goal of creating critical thinkers and lifelong learners. Scholarly projects emphasize self-directed learning to position students participating in the GHC for success in their future careers. Scholarly projects are a mandatory requirement for students who wish to pursue the Certificate of Achievement in Global Health.
 
While projects may follow the traditional models of clinical and basic science research, students are also given the opportunity to pursue projects as diverse as developing proposals for solutions to global health challenges, exploring an aspect of global health through documentary film or proposing a legislative bill related to an aspect of human health and disease impacted by the social determinants of health. Students are challenged to be creative thinkers and problem solvers. Student pursuing a career in global health will be called upon to take an active seat at the table answering the biggest questions facing global health challenges and a scholarly project is first step to learning how to deal with that. Each scholarly project will culminate in a presentation of the student’s work. The requirement to complete a scholarly project is optional. Students who successfully complete and disseminate a scholarly project in additional to the curriculum will earn a Certificate of Achievement in Global Health which will also appear on their MSPR.
 
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Choosing a Global Health Elective
The length of the elective is a minimum of 2 weeks, in a setting within Canada or Internationally that is affected by the social determinants of health such as a low resource setting or locally a setting serving marginalized populations. There are various means of finding elective opportunities. Such as, through an IFMSA (International Federation of Medical Students Association) elective, various local ambassadors and NGOs (http://www.med.uottawa.ca/globalhealth/eng/electives.html), and your peers.
 
The Global Health Program website provides a guide for setting up international electives: https://med.uottawa.ca/international-global-health-office/global-health-program/international-placements/set-international-placement
 
 Please note that pre-approval for international electives is required.
Resources
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If I have more questions who can I contact?