The first II level Master in Italy in Global Health is about to start (the Master in Global Health – MGH) organized by the State University of Milan and its Mach center, Center for Multidisciplinary Research in Health Science, dedicated to biomedical sciences, born from the synergy between the University and the IRCCS Ca ‘Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico Foundation.
What is Mach
Mach is a new innovative pole of excellence and reference for research and modern teaching, with an approach that integrates the various sectors of development, within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations Organization. We are talking about a model that sees the holistic participation of different sectors and disciplines.
Mach’s goal is to contribute to improving health in a complete and all-encompassing way in its various dimensions (i.e. health expressed in a state of complete physical, mental, social well-being, as the visionary Constitution of the World Health Organization has decreed since its creation).
The importance of global health, from the European agency to the masters
by Priscilla Di Thiene
Among its activities there is not only research, but, with the creation of the Master in Global Health, also the education and training of young professionals, coming from different fields and sectors. The University of Milan also offers basic teaching on global health through modules that are part of the Medicine course and of numerous master’s schools. This innovative teaching for Italy, now also included in the normal curriculum of every student, is unique in the country and makes the Milanese university an avant-garde school in Italy and elsewhere.
The Master in Global Health
The master’s objective is to allow various professionals to expand their knowledge in numerous different sectors, such as health, biostatistics, agro-environmental, sociological, economic, legal and managerial. In fact, as for Mach, the concept of human health takes up that of the WHO which is therefore influenced by a wide range of cultural, social and political-economic factors and not only by infectious pathologies and chronic-degenerative diseases.
Furthermore, an issue very dear to global health is access to treatments, drugs and, in general, a series of initiatives aimed at improving the psycho-physical and socio-economic state of health, especially for the most vulnerable who often live on the fringes of society. Therefore, there are numerous disciplines that must be addressed and many professionals who must dialogue between different sectors: epidemiologists, clinicians and biostatisticians, economists, veterinarians, development cooperation experts, international lawyers, digital health experts.
The master allows to better understand how numerous factors act on human health and determine it, and how these can be addressed, leveraging the various actors involved at international and local level between government agencies and non-governmental organizations.
The master lasts one year, is delivered in English and is almost entirely online, except for some internships in low-middle-income countries, including Cameroon, Ethiopia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Guatemala and Pakistan. The master offered by Mach and the University of Milan is the only one in Italy to address the issue of global health.
On an international level, the MGH fits into the context of the 19 masters offered in Europe and of the approximately 45 present in the world, of which only 5 are online, thus allowing access even to those who, coming from countries with low or medium he could grant himself a stable stay of one year in Milan.
The structure of the MGH foresees 18 modules; avails itself of the contribution of professors from both the State University and others from about 25 prestigious Italian and foreign universities and agencies, including the Columbia University (NY, USA), the Karolinska Institute (Stockholm, Sweden), the University of Geneva (Geneva, Switzerland), the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine of London (London, United Kingdom), and the World Health Organization (Geneva, Switzerland). Out of over 50 teachers, half are foreign precisely to reinforce the international and “global” spirit of teaching.
.