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global public health education on the net
``` The formatting on this notice was pretty garbled by the time it reached me. I've reformatted it a bit.
Date: Fri, 19 Aug 1994 17:33:38 +0100 (BST)
From: A Staines
Any thoughts on the appended? This should perhaps be discussed in our group..
Forwarded message:
From Ron LaPorte
Towards Global Public Health Training through the Internet
Recently we have pointed out the potential of the information superhighway to become a critical factor in the improvement in global health in the next century(1). One very important aspect of the telecommunication revolution is that of enabling distance education. We believe that it is prime time to establish a global training program in public health through the capabilities that the internet provides and are enlisting faculty and students to join this effort.
Developing countries are facing the twin burdens of chronic and infectious disease. As the result of increased longevity, chronic diseases have emerged, yet infectious diseases have not been eliminated. Recently, a World Bank report (2) argued that cost-effective public health measures represent a primary means for disease prevention, and a reduction of the enormous cost of disease.
The establishment of public health measures requires trained public heath personnel. Many developing countries have no choice but to send students abroad for training. This is enormously expensive, as tuition, fees, and stipends at an American School of Public Health for a 2 year MPH degree costs over $80,000. Unfortunately the costs are higher as more than 50% of students do not return home after completion of their degree. Thus increasing the foreign trained MPH students in a country requires an investment of over $160,000. In addition, we are in a global community of health, yet our students in developing and developed countries alike have little international experience.
Until now, there were few means by which a student could acquire the public health tools of access to information, the network of students, the availability of leading scientists and international experience other than through foreign training. However, currently there is a way to provide potentially equivalent international expertise and public health care education through the Internet, which can reach broad audiences and avoid relocation and other unnecessary expenses.
We are in the process of establishing a telecommunications based public health training program. This program will grant degrees in public health, as well as provide internationally recognized certificates for those students receiving their public health degrees from their home institutions. Students can also take courses to gain international experience. We are seeking expert faculty of public health in schools, Ministries of Health, and other areas who could serve as mentors and instructors for a new "meta-school" of public health that could train students through the Internet based upon how we learn through networks (3).
The first step of this is to identify potential faculty in epidemiology and other disciplines from schools of public health who are facile on the Internet who would like to teach in this meta school.
The second step is to network across country boundaries young people starting their training in public health in order to start a global training dialogue among students themselves and the faculty. The third step is to begin the degree granting program.
For those students and faculty interested in the formation of a global Internet School of Public Health, please contact one of us below.
Ronald E. LaPorte Director, Disease Monitoring and Telecommunications WHO Collaborating Center Graduate School of Public Health University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA (RLAPORTE@VMS.CIS.PITT.EDU)
Sunichi Akazawa World Health Organization Geneva, Switzerland (AKAZAWA@WHO.CH)
Eugene Boostrom World Bank, Washington D.C. (EBOOSTROM@WORLDBANK.ORG)
Miguel Campos (VIPER@UPCH.EDU.PE)
Carlos Gamboa Pan American Health Organization Washington, D.C. (GAMBOA@NLM.NIH.GOV)
Tony Gooch Dumfies, VA (TGOOCH@USAID.GOV)
Hong-Kyu Lee Seoul National University Seoul, Korea (HKLEE@CD4680.SNU.AC.KR)
Ingrid Libman University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA (IML1@VMS.CIS.PITT.EDU)
Eric Marler Independent Consultant North Tarrytown, NY (GMARLER@RHQVM15.VNET.IBM.COM)
Ken Roko US Agency for International Development Rosslyn, VA (KROKO@USAID.GOV)
Francois Sauer Digital Corporation Dearfield, FL (SAUER@LACV01.ENET.DEC.COM)
Naoko Tajima Jikei University Tokyo, Japan (NTAJIMA@JPNSUT01.BITNET)
Walter Wiebe Federal Networking Council National Science Foundation (WWIEBE@NSF.GOV)
1. LaPorte, RE, Akazawa, S, Hellmonds, et al. Global public health and the information superhighway. British Medical Journal, 1994;308:1651:52
2. World Bank Development Report, 1993: Investing in Health. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1993
3. Riel, M. Global education through learning circles. In: Global Networks. L. Harasim (Ed.), MIT press, London, 1993. pp. 221- 26.
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E-Mail - A.Staines@leeds.ac.uk Dial +44 (0)532 Tel - 443517 Fax
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