| Title: |
Health Care and Management (HCM) From Research to Implementation |
| Country: |
Switzerland
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| Institution: |
Switzerland - Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute, Basel
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| Course coordinator: |
Karin Gross
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| Date start: |
2025-03-24 |
| Date end: |
2025-06-27 |
| About duration and dates: |
Application deadline, for scholarships: 31 August 2024 Application deadline, for self funding Students: 31 December 2024 |
| Classification: |
core course
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| Mode of delivery: |
Blended-learning
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Course location:
Swiss TPH, Seminarroom “Matterhorn” |
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| ECTS credit points: |
20 ECTS credits
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SIT:
Total Overall Student Investment Time: 630 hours
Total Direct Contact Time: 351 hours
Self-directed learning: 279 hours
It is a full-time course. |
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| Language: |
English
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Description:
By the end of the core course students should be able to…
• critically reflect on the collection, analysis and appraisal of qualitative and quantitative data relevant for the improvement of health and health care equity.
• identify and analyse interrelated determinants of health and major health concerns of populations in a trans-disciplinary perspective in low- and middle-income settings and on global level.
• propose sustainable improvements of health systems addressing inequities and considering diverse intercultural settings as well as social, legal and ethical responsibilities.
• describe the role, decision-making process and impact of global health policy actors
• collaborate and clearly communicate in a multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural setting |
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Focus or specific features:
A special feature of this core course is its focus on health system strengthening, strategic management and development of soft skills.
Participants come from around the world and bring along professional experience, thereby contributing to an environment of mutual learning. |
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Assessment Procedures:
Assessments take place throughout the course. A wide range of different examination methods are used: written exams (short answer questions, MCQ, essay), group or individual presentations, case studies. Most but not all of the exams are “open book exams”: candidates are allowed to use their notes and books during the exams. Participants are not asked to memorize facts but rather to put different aspects into context.
Each module comprises specific individual or group assessments:
Concept and Research Methods (25%): Research Methods, Statistics and Epidemiology: written exam (short answer questions ,); applied epidemiology: group presentation of a study design and study protocol by group;
Health issues and responses (25%): MCQ and short answer questions, sexual, reproductive and child health: short answer questions;
Communication, health systems, and management (30%): 1500 - 2000-word essay, group presentation of the health resource allocation model;
Final oral exam at the end of the core course (20%).
The overall pass mark is 60%.
If a student should fail any of the components, the student is allowed to re-sit the assessment of the failed component once. Compensation between components is not possible. |
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Content:
A. Concepts and Research Methods:
Related tropEd core course aims:
- critically reflect on the collection, analysis and appraisal of qualitative and quantitative data relevant for the improvement of health and health care equity.
Introduction and Learning & Presentation Skills
The participants will be able
- to demonstrate an in-depth understanding of international/global health and the structure of the HCM course
- to appraise the teaching and learning concepts at Swiss TPH
- to apply common scientific standards professional presentation skills
Content: Introduction to the HCM course, key concepts of international/global health, introduction to the Agenda2030 and determinants of health, concepts of learning and how to present, introduction to IT infrastructure at Swiss TPH, introduction to literature search
36 hours student investment time*
Research Methods, Statistics and Epidemiology
The participants will be able
- to apply the basic concepts, methods and tools for collecting, analysing and interpreting qualitative and quantitative data
Content: Basic statistics and statistic tutorials, qualitative research methods, basic epidemiology and evidence based medicine
99 hours student investment time*
Applied Epidemiology
The participants will be able
- to design a study protocol based on the concepts and strategies of epidemiological research
- to critically reflect and interpret selected research findings
Content: Study types, population based sampling, study protocol, study instruments, analytical plan and presenting the study
45 hours student investment time*
B. Health issues and responses
Related tropEd core course aims:
- identify and analyse interrelated determinants of health and major health concerns of populations in a trans-disciplinary perspective in low- and middle-income settings and on global level.
Determinants of Health
The participants will be able
- to identify important social, cultural, environmental and economic determinants of health
Content: WASH, Nutrition, Climate change and air pollution, migration, socio-cultural and economic mediators
36 hours student investment time*
Parasitology
The participants will be able
- to identify the most important parasites and vectors
- to describe their cycles and transmission
- to reflect on prevention, treatment and vector control strategies
Content: Introduction to medical parasitology, laboratory presentation, integrated vector management, filarial infections, schistosomiasis, malaria
27 hours student investment time*
Communicable and non-communicable diseases
The participants will be able
- to appraise gender, socio-economic and cultural determinants of health in a cross disciplinary perspective
- to know the basics of clinical presentation of selected communicable and non-communicable diseases
- to critically analyse disease patterns, transmission, prevention strategies and treatment concepts of selected important health problems
Content: Non-communicable diseases including diabetes, cervical cancer, mental health; communicable diseases including diarrhoea, viral diseases, neglected tropical diseases, febrile tropical diseases, selected hepatic/cardiac/neurologic topics, respiratory infections, tuberculosis, AB resistance in TB; integrated management of childhood illnesses; accidents due to venomous and poisonous animals
81 hours student investment time*
Sexual, Reproductive and Child Health
The participants will be able
- to critically appraise the dimension of sexual, reproductive and child health in the 21st century and to orient programming and practice to low-, middle-income and humanitarian settings
Content: Introduction to sexual and reproductive health and rights, family planning, maternal, newborn and child health, simulation in obstetric experience, HIV/AIDS and hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections
36 hours student investment time*
C. Health systems, Management and Communication
Related tropEd core course aims:
- collaborate and clearly communicate in a multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural setting.
- propose sustainable improvements of health systems addressing inequities and considering diverse intercultural settings as well as social, legal and ethical responsibilities.
- describe the role, decision-making process and impact of global health policy actors.
Information, Education, Communication
The participants will be able
- to practice clearly and effectively written communication
- to appraise the particularities of inter-cultural and gender settings
- to apply the basic principles of group dynamics
- to apply concepts, methods and tools in order to reach a common understanding
Content: Essay writing in international health, culture’s consequences, working in groups, HCM Alumni Day, social and behaviour change communication
60 hours student investment time*
Management Strategies
The participants will be able
- to adopt a systemic view on health and health systems at local, national and international level
- to critically appraise the different strategies, concepts and tools of managing (strategic and operational) health and health related issues
- to evaluate health impacts and health strategies based on evidence and professional experience
Content: Introduction to health systems, health care approaches, project cycle management and logframe, health impact assessment, One Health, global health governance, financing and payment of health services at district level, cost effectiveness in health care, health workforce development, technology management and eHealth, geographic information system for health (GIS), access to essential medicines, health system strengthening, visit to WHO and ICRC, health metrics in health systems, social marketing, integrating new interventions in the health system, health in humanitarian assistance, quality of care, anti-corruption and fraud prevention, health resource allocation
165 hours student investment time*
D. Oral exam
Individual oral exam including preparation time
45 hours student investment time* |
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Methods:
The HCM course takes as a premise the principles of adult learning, where the learner bears the responsibility for her/his learning process.
The main task of a teacher is to facilitate learning. The 'facilitators' give guidance and provide the learner with materials and adequate learning opportunities. A broad spectrum of educational methods are used in the direct contact time of the HCM course such as individual or group work and presentations (including problem based case studies and tutorials) (ca. 40%), laboratory demonstrations (ca. 5%), visits (e.g. to global health organizations such WHO and ICRC in Geneva) (ca.5%), and lectures (ca. 50%). |
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Prerequisites:
The course is open to candidates with a first professional qualification (BSc or MSc or relevant professional training or experience which is judged by Swiss TPH to be equivalent to a higher education degree) and at least 2 years of professional experience. There is no specific ECTS pre-requisite.
English requirements: TOEFL Paper 550 /TOEFL Computer 213/TOEFL internet 79 – 80/IELTS 6.0 or native speaker
or completed higher education in English (with written proof). |
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Attendance:
The maximum number of students is 24. There is no limit for the number of tropEd students within the total number of participants accepted. In case of an insufficient number of participants the course can be cancelled up to 4 weeks prior to the course start. The minimum number of participants is 10. |
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Selection:
The selection is based on a review of the application documents according to set criteria (CV, first degrees, recommendations, motivation letter, etc.).
In case there are more applications than places, the following points will be considered for allocation of places: work experience in a resource poor setting, public health or health promotion experience, or a work contract for a position in a resource constrained setting. |
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Scholarships:
A limited number of scholarships for the core course is available but is exclusively reserved for participants from low- and middle-income countries (according the World Bank classification) and according to requirements by funding agencies) working in or wishing to engage in primary health care / public health or district-level health services. Deadline for application is 31 August each year. The scholarships cover course fees, travel and accommodation. Further information is available here. |
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Major changes since initial accreditation:
The course coordinator Bernadette Peterhans has retired and Karin Gross has taken over the coordination of the core course in August 2021.
There were no major structural changes to the course over the last years except for some fine tuning accounting for participants’ feedback and trends within the public, national, global health field.
Changes include:
General: A modular structure is applied to the course.
This will allow other participants to register for specific modules, in case the course is not fully booked by participants doing the core course as a whole.
Research methods and concepts: The overall number of contact hours were slightly decreased in order to leave more time for self-study and tutorials for statistics, as requested in participants’ evaluations.
Health issues and responses: content on major health determinants has been added and content on non-communicable diseases has been extended acknowledging current trends in global health.
Communication, Health Systems and Management: this part has been extended, according the wishes of participants for more management skills.
The field exercise that was conducted for many years was removed from the course as ethical requirement have increased and did not allow for a field study anymore as designed before. |
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Student evaluation:
Each teaching session is evaluated through an anonymous continuous online-survey. A final online evaluation on the overall course is done at the end of course. Moreover, oral feedback sessions allow participants to express their opinions on the strengths and weaknesses of the course.
There is detailed information available on participants’ satisfaction for each lecture as well as for the overall course since 1994.
Overall, the participants’ evaluation of the educational approach and content is very positive. The participants particularly appreciate the balance between the different topics and the teaching approach with a focus to transfer theory into practice. However depending on the needs of the participants for one or the other subject more in-depth knowledge is asked, as well as more time for self-directed learning. |
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Lessons learned:
Hybrid teaching in the HCM course is challenging due to its international audience (coming partially from resource constrained settings) and due to the interactive nature of the course. Moreover, evaluations show that participants prefer an on-site conduct of the course over the online and hybrid format.
A good balance between lectures and group work is critical. Group works need to be well supervised and facilitated. |
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tropEd accreditation:
First accredited 1998 in Berlin, re-accredited 2005 in Berlin, 2011 in Barcelona, 2016 in Amsterdam and at EC Telco Nov 2021. Valid until 2026. |
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Remarks:
The HCM course is a core course for the Master in International Health (MIH) within the tropEd programme. Participants who want to join the MIH programme will only be definitely admitted to the whole programme after successfully finishing the core course (i.e. achieving an average of 80% and above in the overall performance). |
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| Email Address: |
courses@swisstph.ch |
| Date Of Record Creation: |
2012-01-19 21:30:36 (W3C-DTF) |
| Date Of Record Release: |
2012-01-20 03:46:42 (W3C-DTF) |
| Date Record Checked: |
2021-11-30 (W3C-DTF) |
| Date Last Modified: |
2024-07-25 07:28:38 (W3C-DTF) |
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