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Graduate Certificate in Global Medicine

The Graduate Certificate in Global Medicine offers a structured continuum of global health education for University of Utah medical students and an academic record of coherent accomplishment in the growing field of global health.  Over a 4 year period, medical students who complete the Graduate Certificate in Global Medicine are expected to be able to:

Global Burden & Determinants of Disease

  • Describe the status and trends global causes of mortality and morbidity for various age groups and genders as well as the metrics for measuring health outcomes;
  • Compare and contrast the burden of these outcomes between major regions of the world;
  • Describe the major determinants that influence health outcomes of individuals and populations in low- and middle-income countries, including regional and global social, political, environmental, and economic determinants.

Global Health Governance & Health Systems

  • Describe the basic models for health systems in low- and middle-income countries, including payer systems and contributions for both the public and private sectors;
  • Discuss how global health systems and governance structure impact health systems from the perspectives of individual nations, intergovermental organizations (e.g., World Health Organization, World Bank), governmental organizations (e.g., USAID), non-governmental organizations (e.g., Save the Children), public-private partnerships (e.g., Global Fund to Fight AIDs, TB & Malaria) and non-state actors (e.g., Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Doctors Without Borders).

Clinical Medicine & Public Health

  • Identify and describe the risk factors, signs and symptoms for common causers of mortality or morbidity that facilitate diagnosis and therapy in low-resource settings and discuss how resource limitations impact care quality and health outcomes as well as interventions and integrated strategies that have been demonstrated to subtantially improve individual and/or special population's (e.g., refugees) health in low-resource settings, especially in regards to malnutrition, trauma, diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS.

Travel Health & Best Practices of Global Health Engagement, Partnership & Research

  • Prepare for and complete a safe, secure and ethically-sound global health education experience in an international setting;
  • Demonstrate aptitude in locating and applying information related to travel health, personal safety and security;
  • Apply ethical concerpts to address common conundrums that occur during international education activities and cross cultural encounters, including clinical and research activities.

Patient Care (Clinical Track)

  • Identify and integrate contextually-appropriate resources (e.g., manuals, guidelines and other resources) with on's existing knowledge and skills to demonstrate high standards of competency and professionalism while participating in clinical care during a global health elective in a low-resource setting;
  • Describe the impact of the experience on one's personal and professional development.

Research (Scholarship Track)

  • Engage in mentored global health scholarship by participating in research in a global setting;
  • Define their intellectual contribution to the research activity, including their contribution to the study background/literature review, methods, analysis and the interpretation/conclusion(s) gleaned from the research;
  • Present their findings in a formal setting, including either an abstract or poster presented at a scientific conference or a scientific article submitted for publication.

Communication & Collaboration

  • Demonstrate strong communication and collaboration skills by working with a multi-disciplinary group of peers to accomplish a goal-directed activity over a sustained period of time.

Students interested in the Graduate Certificate in Global Medicine program must meet with the Assistant Dean of Global Health Education.  Those pursuing this Certificate must meet with the Assistant Dean on an annual basis.