Last month, I attended the pre-World Health Summit (a student-run preparation workshop) and the World Health Summit in Berlin, Germany. It was a truly humbling experience to be surrounded by a thousand renowned leaders from academia, politics, industry, the private sector and civil society from across the world to address global health issues.
The pre-WHS, held at the beautiful and historical university campus of the Charité, enabled the 40 student delegates to explore our important role as future health leaders. As part of this preparation, I had the privilege of being chosen as one of 10 students to attend a special workshop to critique Germany and France in relation to their global health strategies.
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To contribute effectively to the plenary, it was a steep learning curve to quickly understand the workings of the European Union and the history of its political relationship to the European state countries. Despite the difficulty, it was well-worth the time as I learned about the influence of politics on the interdisciplinary sectorial decisions related to health, and how to structure international cooperation to achieve sustainable improvement in health.
During the World Health Summit, held at the Federal Foreign Office, many pressing issues were brought forward during the main symposiums.
As expected, the Ebola crisis was highlighted as the first symposium of the summit. It was emphasized that neglecting to build health systems in the poorest of countries has had catastrophic effects. The need for a unified international response was recognized, not only from medical health professionals, but also from all stakeholders that affect financial, technical and logistical support. Additionally, with the United Nation’s post-2015 Development Goals on the horizon, universal health coverage was a key factor amongst all discussions. To develop a model that would establish access to essential medicine and technologies is a challenge, but as stressed by the speakers, this can be combated by strengthening health systems in both developed and developing countries.
By far, the two most engaging workshops were those directed at discussing global health and social accountability in medical curricula. Although not a medical student, I was able to stay involved in the discussions of these workshops due to my past experiences.
For example, as I am currently in the process of writing a manuscript to compare the presence of social accountability within medical education in Cuba vs. North America, I was able to highlight the transformative social accountability mandate at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM). The Canadian medical schools, in fact, were well-presented in these workshops:
- Roger Strasser, NOSM dean, was quoted by Dr. Jose Otavio Costa Auler, World Health Summit president, when speaking about the power students have to change curriculums;
- The CanMEDS Framework was used as an example of a comprehensive and effective competency-based educational model; and
- Vincent Dumez, director of the Bureau Facultaire de l’Expertise Patient Partenair at the University of Montreal, was a plenary speaker who discussed an innovative perspective on patient-centered care.
I am sure I smiled far too many times whenever a Canadian institution or leader was mentioned, but I was proud of our voice in global health and social accountability in the medical education system.
While a phenomenal learning experience, I left with one piece of criticism.
Truthfully I, like many other students, were disappointed the international stage had not previously taken measures to strengthen health systems to prevent the many issues that continue to prevail, such as the Ebola crisis.
Why is it ‘health equity’ and ‘health as a human right’ are only now being seriously voiced?
The fear persists in the enormous challenges ahead for the next generation of global leaders – for us, for students. Patent laws for access to medicines are becoming more stringent, climate change is impacting the spread of human infectious diseases – inequities continue to rise and new health threats continue to emerge.
However, this understanding strengthened my belief of moral clarity – the idea of a moral obligation to assist those in need when in possession of the tools to do so. I am convinced, after working with passionate and socially proactive students, we, as young leaders, can hone these tools (whether through medicine, global health, politics, economics or through an interdisciplinary facet) to develop a skillset to engage and collaborate with diverse stakeholders to provide sustainable health support to communities.
Hearing from both students and distinguished experts attending the World Health Summit was inspiring, empowering and motivating. I am excited, now more than ever, to continue pursuing my dream as a ‘physician-global health advocate’ while fighting in solidarity with others for health equity across the globe.
Raksha Sule is a student in the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.
