One World for Public Health Education

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LE T TER TO THE EDITOR

J Exp Clin Med 2010;2(5):200–201

A well-trained and well-managed workforce is crucial for good-quality health services in all countries.1 However, public health workforce development is commonly ne-glected, particularly in developing countries, and rare resources are disproportionately invested in profes-sionals providing direct medical services rather than in preventative health measures and community or na-tionwide public health programs. The Global Health Workforce Alliance sums it up this way, “Public health services are essential to health outcomes; financing pub-lic health is often neglected in consideration of individ-ual health equity concerns”.2

The globalization of public health education reached a new milestone when three of the world’s most influen-tial organizations of schools of public health [Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER), Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) in North America, and Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health (APACPH)], represented by the authors, convened the First Global Summit of Schools of Public

Health. During the summit, held on the 25th anniver-sary of the founding of APACPH and during the 41st APACPH Conference in December 2009,3 leaders of the three organizations signed a declaration to promote education and research in global health.4,5 In these three associations are included more than 200 schools of pub-lic health around the world with over 10,000 professional graduates annually, filling the critical global need for public health professionals.6

The groups will begin to draw a road map to create a global coalition of schools of public health to share and contribute to public health education and research for all citizens in the world. The Declaration emphasizes that “global health is public health” and encourages global health research, teaching, capacity building, evidence-based policy-making, partnerships among all public health academic institutions, and increased resources to be set aside for global health.

In this era of global health challenges including new emerging infectious diseases, climate change, impacts

of financial downturns and a shortage of public health professionals, this new coalition will support the World Health Organization in its leadership with a “One World” approach, and empower each public health association and public health professional to provide better services to communities locally and globally. Reorganized core curricula and new or expanding centers/departments dedicated to global health education and research are expected to be established in many of the associations’ schools, providing a shared platform for exchange for students and faculty, and core course programs. We ex-pect to observe new generations of public health profes-sionals who—incubated in a globalized, technologically advanced multidisciplinary education environment, and imbued with a global vision and expectations—are em-powered to effectively tackle the emerging challenges in geopolitics and public health.

Professor Antoine Flahault†, President, ASPHER; Dean, EHESP (École des Hautes Études en Santé Publique), Paris, France Professor Wen-Ta Chiu†, President, APACPH; President, Taipei

Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

Professor Linda Rosenstock†, Chair, ASPH; Dean, UCLA School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Professor Tung-Liang Chiang, President, 41st_APACPH

Conference; Dean, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

Professor Walter K. Patrick, Secretary General, APACPH; Professor, School of Public Health, University of Hawaii, HI, USA Peter W.S. Chang*, Dean of International Affairs, Taipei Medical

University, Taipei, Taiwan

References

1. Márquez M. Health-workforce development in the Cuban health system. Lancet 2009;374:1574–5.

2. Global Health Workforce Alliance. 2nd_{Forum on Human Resources}

for Health, 2011: Online Survey Consultation. Available at http://

www.who.int/workforcealliance/forum/forumsurvey/en/index. html [Date accessed: January 12, 2010]

One World for Public Health Education

*Corresponding author. E-mail: peter.chang3@gmail.com

†_{Equal contribution}

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One world for public health education 201 3. Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health. 41st_APACPH

Conference. Available at http://apacph.org/Documents/2009/

Conference_41/2009_Conference.html [Date accessed: January 12, 2010]

4. Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region.

ASPHER, APACPH, ASPH Sign Declaration During Global Summit of Schools of Public Health. Available at http://www.aspher.org/

[Published: December 4, 2009]

5. Association of Schools of Public Health. ASPH, APACPH, ASPHER sign declaration during Global Summit of Schools of Public Health. In: ASPH Friday Letter #1598. Available at http://fridayletter. asph.org/press.cfm?FL_Index=1598 [Published: December 4, 2009]

6. Department of Human Resources for Health, World Health Organization. Health Workforce. Available at http://www.who. int/hrh/en/ [Date accessed: January 10, 2010]