Second Edition of the ISGlobal-UB Master of Global Health Starts This Week

The second edition of the ISGlobal-UB Master of Global Health started this week at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Barcelona (UB). The classes will run until June 2014. This year's students are from a wide range of academic backgrounds (history, biology, anthropology, pharmacy and economics, among others) and come from Spain, the US, the Netherlands, Peru, the UK, and Venezuela.

The Master was launched on Monday, September 30 with a practical introductory session led by Dr. Núria Casamitjana (course director) and Dr. Azucena Bardají (course coordinator). On the following day, students attended their first class in the Global Health Challenges module, with an introduction to global health by Dr. Pedro Alonso, ISGlobal's Director, and Dr. Antonio Plasència, Technical Director of ISGlobal's research centre, CRESIB. The students then analysed several articles from the Global Burden of Disease Study. This study, published by The Lancet, is the largest systematic assessment of the causes and distribution of the main diseases in the world.

The ISGlobal-UB Master of Global Health is one of the first postgraduate programmes to address health from a global, multidisciplinary perspective in Spain. It is the result of a collaborative effort between ISGlobal, CRESIB, the University of Barcelona and institutions such as Médicos Sin Fronteras, IntermónOxfam and CREAL (Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology).