U21 Health Sciences' United Nations Millennium Development Goals Workshop
On 1-2 February 2010, faculty and students from a range of universities attended an ‘extraordinary’ U21 Health Sciences’ United Nations Millennium Development Goals (UN MDG) workshop, organized by the U21 Health Sciences’ UN MDG Education Steering Committee, and hosted by the University of Hong Kong, with financial support from Korea University.
More than fifty delegates from medicine and public health, dentistry, nursing, health and rehabilitation sciences (speech pathology, occupational therapy and physiotherapy) and pharmacy attended the workshop convened by the U21 Health Sciences’ UN MDG Steering Committee and led by Professor Kendall Ho from the University of British Columbia. Professor Kenneth McGillivray, Secretary General of APRU, whose members were also invited to attend, was a featured presenter at the workshop,
Major themes included UN MDGs and sustainable health; examples of public health engagement at Fudan University; current engagement strategies, with presentations on UN MDG student-led initiatives at the Universities of Queensland and Hong Kong and at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico; synergy with global e-health; and practical case-writing workshops as part of UN MDG curriculum development. The workshop also included discussion of the longitudinal evaluation framework prepared by the University of British Columbia’s e-Health Strategy Office, and the potential for research output relating to the UN MDG initiative.
Key outcomes of the workshop in Hong Kong included: 1) progress on the U21 UN MDG module, involving a broad outline for a syllabus, additional case development, and a strategy to build on existing learning/teaching resources including videos involving students and UN MDG experts; 2) strategies for strengthening student involvement and leadership; 3) garnering broad-based interprofessional involvement; 4) International partnership building including a commitment to develop an educational research agenda around UN MDG education; and 5) synergy with eHealth through the U21 Health Sciences eHealth committee and partners.
A comprehensive report of the workshop, including presentations, is available on the U21 Health Sciences' website. The U21 UN MDG Education Steering Committee will meet and look at the range of outcomes from this workshop, and prioritise work packages over the coming months. Progress will be reported on at the upcoming U21 UN MDG workshop in September 2010, and at the U21 Health Sciences annual meeting at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico.
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