Health challenges don't stop at national borders. Infectious diseases, migration, climate and environmental conditions, economic forces, health policy and political decisions can all influence the health of individuals and communities — both around the world and close to home.
The Global Health Scholarly Concentration at Indiana University School of Medicine gives medical students an interdisciplinary framework for understanding these connections and preparing to address them. Students examine the relationship between local and global health while exploring the social, economic, political, commercial and environmental factors that influence health beyond the walls of a clinic or hospital.
Along the way, students develop skills in leadership, policy analysis, cross-cultural communication and partnership building while considering an important question: How can physicians engage in global health thoughtfully, ethically and effectively?
Fast facts about the concentration
Location: Statewide
Co-directors: Srikanth Kondreddy, PhD and Jenny Baenziger, MD
Focus: Global and local health, health policy and systems, health equity, cross-cultural collaboration and the broader forces that shape population health
Meet the co-directors
The Global Health Scholarly Concentration is co-directed by Srikanth Kondreddy, PhD and Jenny Baenziger, MD, whose complementary experiences span global health policy, research, education and clinical care in the United States and internationally.
Kondreddy brings a multidisciplinary background spanning biological, social, health and policy sciences. His scholarship focused on global health policy, governance and diplomacy, and his experience includes research and policy engagement with organizations ranging from UN agencies and the World Health Organization to federal health agencies, global health think tanks and nonprofit organizations allows him to help students connect the theories they encounter in the classroom with the realities of how global health policies are developed, negotiated and implemented.
Baenziger brings the perspective of a physician whose interest in global health has developed throughout her education and career. Her experiences have included work in Honduras while attending IU School of Medicine and AMPATH Kenya during her Medicine-Pediatrics residency at IU. As a med-peds hospitalist at Eskenazi Hospital, she cares for a diverse patient population. As associate director of education at the IU Center for Global Health, she leads global health programming for medical students and residents across specialties.
What students can expect
Global health can sound straightforward. In practice, it is anything but. “This concentration has been a dream for a very long time,” the co-directors said. “Global health is interesting, complicated, and ethically challenging; it’s vitally important yet easy to do in ways that are harmful.”
Rather than approaching global health simply as providing medical care in another country, students examine the larger systems and circumstances that shape health. They'll consider how health challenges are influenced by policy, economics, politics, environmental conditions and other forces — and why improving health often requires collaboration well beyond medicine.
Discussion and learning from different perspectives will be central to that experience. The co-directors hope students will challenge assumptions, learn from one another and develop a more nuanced understanding of what responsible global health work requires.
Why global health matters for future physicians
Students don't have to plan an international career to benefit from understanding global health. The concentration is designed to prepare students for many possible paths: practicing medicine internationally, pursuing health policy or research, or remaining in Indiana and caring for communities increasingly shaped by global connections.
Students will also have opportunities for mentoring around global health careers and ways to incorporate global health interests into different specialties and types of work.
Is this the right fit?
The Global Health Scholarly Concentration may be a particularly good fit for students who are curious about why health differs across communities and countries — not simply how disease is treated once it occurs.
Students interested in international medicine, health equity, public health, policy, health systems, infectious disease or cross-cultural care will find opportunities to explore those interests. The concentration can also appeal to students who haven't yet decided exactly where global health might fit into their careers.
What matters most is a willingness to look beyond individual patient encounters, consider different perspectives and grapple with complicated questions about how physicians can contribute responsibly to improving health.
Examples of student research
Global health scholarship can take many forms, reflecting the wide range of factors that influence health. Projects students might pursue include, but aren’t limited to:
- Developing an instrument management system for central sterile processing in a low-resource hospital
- Using human-centered design to adapt an economic curriculum for adolescent mothers in Kenya
- Assessing a community-based group care program for pregnant and parenting adolescents in western Kenya
- Studying the diagnosis of acute meningitis in a resource-limited setting
- Exploring the experiences of fathers and siblings of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities
- Studying nutrition practices for surgical neonates in low- and middle-income countries
For students who want to understand health in a broader context, the Global Health Scholarly Concentration offers an opportunity to develop the knowledge, perspective and partnerships needed to improve health across borders, cultures and communities — including the communities they will serve here at home.
