The new philosophy of global health will include information sharing- one of the most important means to improve health globally.

 

Global health is a knowledge organization, with multiple different disciplines tied together by lines of communication to attack global problems. New achievements in the field of information technology are helping to exchange information rapidly and at minimal cost. The Internet revolution allows us to effectively share global health research information across the globe. Palm pilots, iPods, cell phones, and other technologies hold a great potential to improve information delivery to remote regions.

 

If knowledgeable about global health, medical students could play a major role in sharing public health and medical information and improving health around the world. It is critical to take our scientific knowledge and to translate this into the global community. The new information systems are a million times more powerful than they were but 40 years ago. Combining Prevention, research, education, IT is a powerful prevention stew, perhaps the most powerful for nourishing global health.

 

Visit the Supercourse lecture “Knowledge access and sharing. An overview of access models.” at http://www.pitt.edu/~super1/lecture/lec14521/index.htm