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A case study of global health at the university: implications for research and action

BACKGROUND: Global health is increasingly a major focus of institutions in high-income countries. However, little work has been done to date to study the inner workings of global health at the university level. Academics may have competing objectives, with few mechanisms to coordinate efforts and po...

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Autores principales: Pinto, Andrew D., Cole, Donald C., ter Kuile, Aleida, Forman, Lisa, Rouleau, Katherine, Philpott, Jane, Pakes, Barry, Jackson, Suzanne, Muntaner, Carles
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Co-Action Publishing 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4149743/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25172428
http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v7.24526
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author Pinto, Andrew D.
Cole, Donald C.
ter Kuile, Aleida
Forman, Lisa
Rouleau, Katherine
Philpott, Jane
Pakes, Barry
Jackson, Suzanne
Muntaner, Carles
author_facet Pinto, Andrew D.
Cole, Donald C.
ter Kuile, Aleida
Forman, Lisa
Rouleau, Katherine
Philpott, Jane
Pakes, Barry
Jackson, Suzanne
Muntaner, Carles
author_sort Pinto, Andrew D.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Global health is increasingly a major focus of institutions in high-income countries. However, little work has been done to date to study the inner workings of global health at the university level. Academics may have competing objectives, with few mechanisms to coordinate efforts and pool resources. OBJECTIVE: To conduct a case study of global health at Canada's largest health sciences university and to examine how its internal organization influences research and action. DESIGN: We drew on existing inventories, annual reports, and websites to create an institutional map, identifying centers and departments using the terms ‘global health’ or ‘international health’ to describe their activities. We compiled a list of academics who self-identified as working in global or international health. We purposively sampled persons in leadership positions as key informants. One investigator carried out confidential, semi-structured interviews with 20 key informants. Interview notes were returned to participants for verification and then analyzed thematically by pairs of coders. Synthesis was conducted jointly. RESULTS: More than 100 academics were identified as working in global health, situated in numerous institutions, centers, and departments. Global health academics interviewed shared a common sense of what global health means and the values that underpin such work. Most academics interviewed expressed frustration at the existing fragmentation and the lack of strategic direction, financial support, and recognition from the university. This hampered collaborative work and projects to tackle global health problems. CONCLUSIONS: The University of Toronto is not exceptional in facing such challenges, and our findings align with existing literature that describes factors that inhibit collaboration in global health work at universities. Global health academics based at universities may work in institutional siloes and this limits both internal and external collaboration. A number of solutions to address these challenges are proposed.
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spelling pubmed-41497432014-09-09 A case study of global health at the university: implications for research and action Pinto, Andrew D. Cole, Donald C. ter Kuile, Aleida Forman, Lisa Rouleau, Katherine Philpott, Jane Pakes, Barry Jackson, Suzanne Muntaner, Carles Glob Health Action Capacity Building BACKGROUND: Global health is increasingly a major focus of institutions in high-income countries. However, little work has been done to date to study the inner workings of global health at the university level. Academics may have competing objectives, with few mechanisms to coordinate efforts and pool resources. OBJECTIVE: To conduct a case study of global health at Canada's largest health sciences university and to examine how its internal organization influences research and action. DESIGN: We drew on existing inventories, annual reports, and websites to create an institutional map, identifying centers and departments using the terms ‘global health’ or ‘international health’ to describe their activities. We compiled a list of academics who self-identified as working in global or international health. We purposively sampled persons in leadership positions as key informants. One investigator carried out confidential, semi-structured interviews with 20 key informants. Interview notes were returned to participants for verification and then analyzed thematically by pairs of coders. Synthesis was conducted jointly. RESULTS: More than 100 academics were identified as working in global health, situated in numerous institutions, centers, and departments. Global health academics interviewed shared a common sense of what global health means and the values that underpin such work. Most academics interviewed expressed frustration at the existing fragmentation and the lack of strategic direction, financial support, and recognition from the university. This hampered collaborative work and projects to tackle global health problems. CONCLUSIONS: The University of Toronto is not exceptional in facing such challenges, and our findings align with existing literature that describes factors that inhibit collaboration in global health work at universities. Global health academics based at universities may work in institutional siloes and this limits both internal and external collaboration. A number of solutions to address these challenges are proposed. Co-Action Publishing 2014-08-27 /pmc/articles/PMC4149743/ /pubmed/25172428 http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v7.24526 Text en © 2014 Andrew D. Pinto et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Capacity Building
Pinto, Andrew D.
Cole, Donald C.
ter Kuile, Aleida
Forman, Lisa
Rouleau, Katherine
Philpott, Jane
Pakes, Barry
Jackson, Suzanne
Muntaner, Carles
A case study of global health at the university: implications for research and action
title A case study of global health at the university: implications for research and action
title_full A case study of global health at the university: implications for research and action
title_fullStr A case study of global health at the university: implications for research and action
title_full_unstemmed A case study of global health at the university: implications for research and action
title_short A case study of global health at the university: implications for research and action
title_sort case study of global health at the university: implications for research and action
topic Capacity Building
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4149743/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25172428
http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v7.24526
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