1. The Think Global Initiative and the Asia-Pacific Region
of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA)
and the Asian Medical Students’ Association-Philippines present
Think Global Asia-Pacific Workshop
on Global Health in Medical Education
Towards a Transformative
Medical Education for a
Healthy Asia-Pacific Future
December 19-21, 2011
Alvior Hall, University of the Philippines Manila

2. Questions
• What is the state of global health today? What is the state of health
in Asia-Pacific? What challenges are we currently facing, and are
expecting to face in the future?
• How can global health be integrated in medical education? What
existing methods need to be strengthened, and what novel ways
can be developed?
• How can medical education be transformed in order to produce
physicians who can respond to current and future health challenges
of the region?
• How can medical education be transformed in order to solve the
health workforce crisis and the gross inequities in health in the
region and around the world?
• How can we medical students push for reforms in medical
education? How should we convey our message to leaders in
medical education?

3. Foundations of Global Health
• Health – complete state, a right, a resource
• Determinants approach to health
• Disease-focused -> health systems -> social
determinants approach
• Global health – transcends boundaries, shared
risks, collective action
• Global health is local – think global, act local

4. The Global Health Situation
• Focus on Asia-Pacific (Southeast Asia)
• Diversity in health systems, environmental and
social conditions -> differences in health
outcomes
• Where will the Philippines be five years from
now?

5. The Health Workforce Crisis
• Movement – rural to urban, developing to
developed
• Reforms are needed – from production to
utilization; in education, health system, and
larger society

6. World Health Organization
• Technical agency – guidance, recommend,
provides direction, no police power
• Structure, programs, WHO in the UN system
• WHO reform – changing landscape of global
health, multiple stakeholders

7. The Lancet Commission
• Health workers save lives!
• Mismatch between health workers and
current global health needs
• Health workers in places they are not
needed, taught what they will not need
• 10 Reforms – instructional and institutional
• Multisectoral approach – not just the health
sector

8. Gawad Kalinga
• Projects versus programs
• Women at the center of social change
• Effective, respectful communication is vital
• Community diagnosis is key
• Empowerment is giving opportunity to
unleash innate power!

9. Social Determinants of Health
• Conditions in which we are
born, live, grow, work, and age – 70% of
health improvements
• Virchow: prosperity, education, liberty
• 1% versus 99% - inequities in wealth
distribution (USA, Philippines)
• What good it is to treat diseases only to bring
our patients back to the conditions that made
them sick?

10. Social Accountability in Medical
Schools
• How do we measure success of medical
schools?
• Global Consensus for Social Accountability
• Social responsibility -> responsiveness ->
accountability
• 10 Areas for Action

11. Universal Health Care
• The six building blocks
• Aquino Health Agenda versus Universal Health
Care Study Group proposal
• Reforms in health system in tandem with
reforms in the production of the health
workforce
• Thailand is a model!

12. Advocacy and Policy Engagement
• Nine questions
• Lessons from tobacco control advocacy
• Let’s quit tobacco! 

13. Community as a Partner
• Not a guinea pig, not a classroom, not a
charity case – but a PARTNER!
• Strengthen health systems, address social
determinants
• Politics is inevitable
• Prolonged, longitudinal community
engagement in medical education
• Think Global 2: Field trip to San Juan and
Leyte

14. Objectives
• Gain a deeper understanding of global health issues
and trends, with special attention to the health of Asia-
Pacific populations
• Reflect on the state of medical education in the region
and its relevance to the current global health situation
• Explore ways on how to reform medical education so
that it is responsive to current and future global health
needs and challenges especially in the region
• Initiate a dialogue regarding advocacy for
transformative medical education

15. Where do we go from here?

16. Outputs
• Manila Declaration on Transformative Medical Education
for a Healthy Asia-Pacific Future, to be
adopted, promoted, and used as basis for action by
national member organizations (NMOs) of the IFMSA Asia-
Pacific Region
• An article presenting students’ perspectives on
transformative medical education in Asia-Pacific to be
published in a reputable journal
• A Philippine Strategy for Transformative Medical
Education to be used by the Asian Medical Students’
Association-Philippines for its advocacy work
• Workshop Report to serve as documentation of lectures
and discussions and to be submitted to the IFMSA Think
Global Initiative and UNESCO

17. “…combining the humanitarian
mission of medicine with the
creation of a just society.”
Steve Brouwer

18. “It is my aspiration that health will
finally be seen not as a blessing to
be wished for, but as a human right
to be fought for.”
Kofi Annan

19. “In health, there is freedom.
Health is the first of all liberties”
Henri Frederic Amiel

20. “Medicine… has the obligation to
point out problems and to attempt
their theoretical solution… The
physicians are the natural attorneys
of the poor.”
Rudolf Virchow