Global Health Governance (open uni, spring 2026)

Sufficient English language skills.

Global Health Governance includes subject level studies intended for students in Administrative Sciences and for students who are interested in understanding the governance challenges and opportunities in the public healthcare sector. The course focuses on governance, coordination and collaboration to address medical deserts as a global, national, regional and local phenomenon. At the end of this course, students will be able to develop the following knowledge areas: • Understand current challenges and opportunities in the governance of healthcare systems • Define the concepts of governance, coordination and collaboration in the context of the healthcare sector • Understand the topic of medical deserts, the causes of medical deserts in Europe and solutions that can be implemented to address medical deserts in Europe and in Finland In this course students will receive support to develop the following skills, which are important for further studies and work life: • Reading and understanding academic literature and research on health governance, coordination and collaboration with a focus on medical deserts • Groupwork and working in small teams • Research skills • Communication skills in English • Analytical writing in English • Critical thinking applied to a real-world problem and context The course reinforces the following common learning objectives of the Public Policy and Management major: ability to analyze and interpret public activities and their operational environment from the perspective of organizations and regions, and the ability to develop the operations of organizations, regions, and networks by considering their specific characteristics. In terms of sustainable development, the goal is to learn to develop effective, responsible, and transparent institutions at all levels, as well as to promote health and well-being in society.

Available online and in Moodle before the start of the course, including: * Brînzac, M.G., Kuhlmann, E., Dussault, G., Ungureanu, M.I., Cherecheș, R.M., & Baba, C.O. (2023). Defining medical deserts - an international consensus-building exercise, European Journal of Public Health, 33(5): 785–788, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckad107 * Dubas-Jakóbczyk K, Gonzalez AI, Domagała A, et al. (2024). Medical deserts in Spain - Insights from an international project. International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 39(3): 708-721. https://doi.org/10.1002/hpm.3782 * Eurostat (2022). How many people live 15 minutes away from a hospital? https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20221010-1 * Flinterman, L. E., González-González, A. I., Bes, J., Seils, L., Ballester, M., Bañeres, J., Dan, S., Domagała, A., Dubas-Jakóbczyk, K., Likic, R., Kroezen, M., Batenburg, R. (2023). Characteristics of medical deserts and approaches to mitigate their health workforce issues: A scoping review of empirical studies in Western countries, International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 12(1), pp. 1-16. https://dx.doi.org/10.34172/ijhpm.2023.7454 * France24 English, A country short of doctors: Exploring France's 'medical deserts' (15 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KasHLzmcr4 * Huhtakangas, Moona (THL-Finland) about medical deserts, OASES project (4 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI87AN4nkQk * Marcec, R., Seils, L., González-González, A. I., Dubas-Jakóbczyk, K., Domagała, A., Dan, S., Flinterman, L., Likic, R., Batenburg, R. (2023). Tackling Medical Deserts: Unearthing Factors that Influence Medical Students' Attitudes and the Path Forward, Postgraduate Medical Journal, 99(1177): 1205-1206, https://doi.org/10.1093/postmj/qgad042 * ROUTE-HWF project (2023). Case studies on medical deserts, D7.1 Case study report, https://route-hwf.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Deliverable-7.1.-Case-study-report.pdf * ROUTE-HWF project (2022). Webinar Applying and Assessing the Definition, Taxonomy and Guidelines for Monitoring and Measuring Medical Deserts (90 min)