Students offer views on addressing global health issues in new publication

December 15, 2011 - Student Voices 3, a publication offering a student perspective on five pressing global health issues, is now available on the McMaster Health Forum website.

The edited volume contains five chapters dealing with surgical care, neglected tropical diseases, peak oil and sustainable energy, childhood obesity and childhood pneumonia. Each chapter explores the global political context in which decisions on the particular topics are made, identifies prevailing trends in the issue area, and considers advocacy strategies that concerned stakeholders can adopt to catalyze action.

The authors are McMaster University students who prepared the essays for a fourth-year undergraduate course, Global Health Advocacy (HTH SCI 4ZZ3), during the winter semester of the 2011 academic year. The course is offered by the Bachelor of Health Sciences (Honours) Program in collaboration with the McMaster Health Forum, and is taught by Steven Hoffman, an assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatics and a Forum adjunct faculty.

“Global health efforts need to be informed by the best available evidence and creative insights,” said Hoffman. “Through this publication, it is hoped that these students can help shape some of today’s leading debates in global health as they prepare themselves to confront tomorrow’s greatest challenges.”

This is the third publication focused on global health issues that has been produced by students under Hoffman’s direction. To view all of the publications, click here. A fourth student publication is planned for 2012 which will analyze 15 proposals for access to medicines reform.