Global Health Case Challenges

Interviews with students that participated in the Global Health Case Challanges

Hi, I am Phyo Bo Bo Myint from Myanmar. My background is a medical doctor and I’ve worked as a public health practitioner in international NGOs and the Ministry of Health for 7 years.

During the Master’s programme, I have enjoyed learning about what is happening around the world from a health perspective, how people are solving problems and how I can contribute in the coming years. I got the opportunity to apply my knowledge and skills in the Global Health Case Challenge 2022 in Copenhagen.

This was a wonderful experience to understand and design practical and feasible solutions for relevant global public health issues. We worked in groups of students from all over the world so I learned a lot from others’ experiences and about different contexts. In my experience, diversity is sometimes not easy to work together in the beginning but it helps us to have better results and boost creativity.

Hi there, my name is Joachim, a 22 year old Dutch “half-doctor”. I decided to join the Global Health Master’s before returning to the last three years of medicine and clinical work. Something I don’t regret.

The programme as a whole has provided me with the understanding that our world is super diverse and everything is contextual. During the Global Health Case Challenge in Copenhagen, I worked on a case which needed all the skills I have developed in the Master’s. I discovered that group work is challenging! Working on solutions together with others asks for many skills, understanding and patience.

The process of collaborating might be hard, but is also rewarding. Learning about other viewpoints, approaches and coming to solutions together is a process of joy and provides perspective. This course opened many doors for social contacts, new knowledge and ideas. The fact that collaborations, knowledge and perseverance are able to change things in a good way, provides us hope.

Urban Health Case Challenge

On 27 November, 2020 a team of five students from Uppsala University participated in the Urban Health Case Challenge (UHCC), an initiative from the 4EU+ University Alliance.

The challenge was launched to address the impact that changing urban environments and demographic developments have on the health of our society. In third place came our own Uppsala team, which consisted of three students from the Master's Programme in Global Health (Regina Escher, Nicole Quattrini, Annette Ekblom), Master's Programme in Sustainable Development (Qianhui Yuan) and Master of Science Programme in Pharmacy (Neda Safa).

In total, fourteen multi-disciplinary teams, mainly consisting of Master's students, participated in a week-long virtual challenge. This year's topic challenged each team to work on a local solution to the issue "In your city, design a community intervention that strengthens resilience among vulnerable populations to overcome negative implications of covid-19 preventive measures."

Uppsala's team presented the "Grand-Pal system", which targets two vulnerable sections of the population: elderly and international students. This “buddy system” would establish communication channels and combat social isolation, which is a negative health impact due to the restrictions of the covid -19 pandemic. The potential of this system extends past the pandemic and could also target social isolation often felt by these two vulnerable groups here in Sweden.

The winners of the 4EU+ Urban Health Case Challenge and video presentations