This week, I want to bring a special program to your attention. This June, Queen’s is hosting the Knowledge Translation in Global Health Summer Institute, the first of its kind on Queen’s campus and one of the first in Canada. Designed for working professionals, graduate students and upper-year students in professional programs, it offers a five-day program, it serves as a capstone course for the certificate program offered through the Queen’s Department of Global Development Studies[i] and a summer institute for the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research (CCGHR)[ii].
The faculty include some of our top investigators at Queen’s from the School of Rehabilitation Therapy, the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science and the departments of Surgery, Global Development Studies, Kinesiology and Health Studies, Community Health and Epidemiology and Family Medicine. Prominent international keynote speakers include John Bartlett (Duke University’s Global Health Institute) and Luis Ortiz Hernández (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico City). Areas of study during the weeklong course include global health with vulnerable populations, service reconstruction in areas of conflict and innovation in the area of global health.
The summer institute runs from June 3 – 7 and there is a special early bird registration rate. Continuing medical education (CME) credits are available from the College of Family Physicians of Canada to participants in the program. Find out more about the program via this link: Global Health Summer Institute @ Queen’s
Event co-chair Dr. Colleen Davison, a faculty member in the Department of Community Heath and Epidemiology tells me there are three main objectives with the program: “We want to help participants learn about effective knowledge translation for supporting global health improvements; we want to provide an opportunity to apply knowledge translation skills in real global health projects; and we want to build a network of support for colleagues across the Queen’s campus who have an interest in these issues.”
This has happened because our Office of Global Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences[iii] and Queen’s Department of Global Development Studies have partnered with the CCGHR (who have previously done courses in Tanzania, India, Burkino Faso, Mexico, and Equador).I am quite vocal about my belief that Queen’s Faculty of Health Sciences needs to identify focused areas of strength where we can expand our footprint beyond Kingston. Cross faculty/departmental projects (like this one) and international partnerships are priorities in our strategic plan for the School of Medicine[iv] and our overall strategy for the Faculty. Principal Woolf is equally committed, as clearly stated in the academic plan for the university[v].
So, I am really pleased to see this kind of academic programming and would like to extend my appreciation to co-chairs Dr. Davison and Dr. Mark Hostetler (Global Development Studies, Queen’s), and to the other organizers here on campus and our partners at CCGHR.
If you have other stories about global health and development programs and projects at Queen’s, please respond to this blog, or better yet…drop by the Macklem House, my door is always open.
Richard
* My thanks to Peter Aitken, our communications coordinator, for his help in preparing this blog
[1] http://www.queensu.ca/devs/devs-certificate-programme.html
[11] http://www.ccghr.ca
[111] http://meds.queensu.ca/education/global_health
[1v] http://meds.queensu.ca/strategic-plan
[v] http://www.queensu.ca/principal/wherenext.html
