Undergraduates travel to London this month to learn about health systems
| May 08, 2012 | |
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Sixteen UNC undergraduates will take part in a week-long study-abroad program in London May 13-18. Sponsored by UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health’s Department of Health Policy and Management, the students will explore the organization, financing, challenges and future directions of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS).
The students, six of whom are from the health policy and management department, will be provided with an in-depth introduction to the global model for health services delivery and have an opportunity to compare the U.K. and U.S. health systems. They will visit London-area health facilities and meet with area experts, including faculty members from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and King’s College London.
Dr. Sue Hobbs
“Our HPM undergraduates have for a long time expressed a strong desire to travel to countries to learn about other health systems,” says Suzanne Havala Hobbs, DrPH, clinical associate professor in health policy and management and in nutrition. “London is the perfect destination because the NHS is undergoing rapid changes and creates an interesting opportunity to compare the U.K. health system with that in the U.S.” Faculty preceptors from the health policy and management department include Hobbs, who is also director of the department’s executive doctoral program in health leadership; Sandra Greene, DrPH, Professor of the Practice and senior research fellow at UNC’s Cecil G.Sheps Center for Health Services Research; Tom Ricketts, PhD, professor and deputy director of the Sheps Center; and Melanie Studer, MHSA, clinical instructor and director of the department’s Bachelor of Science in Public Health degree program.
Study of the U.K. health system will be complemented with special cultural activities, including a city tour, a visit to the John Snow Pub, epicenter of the 1854 cholera outbreak and site of the infamous Broad Street pump, and trips to the British Museum, London Theater and other attractions.
“We are fortunate to have strong relationships with other top schools in the U.K.,” Hobbs said. “Students will benefit from meeting faculty from those schools as well as getting out in the field to visit hospitals and other points of interest in London.”
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Linda Kastleman, communications editor, (919) 966-8317 or linda_kastleman@unc.edu.
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