Nick Emmel, programme director

A new intercalated degree in international health is running for the first time this academic year (2002-3), run by the Nuffield Institute for Health at the University of Leeds.

The degree is the second of its kind in the country; University College London's is now in its second year. The course was set up as a direct result of efforts by MedSIN (Medical Students International Network) who are campaigning for international health to be a compulsory part of the undergraduate curriculum by 2005.

International issues are often not dealt with in medical degrees. Yet many lessons can be learnt from the way health is dealt with in different countries and regions of the world.

Studying the context in which health policies are developed and health care is delivered helps medical students to understand issues such as patterns of health and inequalities in healthcare provision. Insights from international health provide invaluable lessons that will help students in their future careers as doctors. Infectious diseases do not recognise international boundaries; the HIV and AIDS epidemic is a globally important problem. So too, the huge differences in opportunity for health between developed and developing countries. Studying international health enables students to question high tech solutions resting on unsustainable investment as an approach to tackling the health needs of most of the world's population. Experiences from international health can inform strategies to tackle health problems in ethnic populations and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom, and in public health, primary care, and referral services designed to improve the health of the nation.

The degree at Leeds offers perspectives that go beyond the rote learnt clinical experience of many medical degrees. As projects, students are investigating areas as diverse as policies to reduce alcoholism in India and the United Kingdom, exploring how Nepal's health system can decentralise health care services, and the effects of swaddling infants on the prevalence of acute respiratory infection in Mongolia.

The Nuffield Institute for Health at the University of Leeds is a World Health Organization collaborating centre, which brings together teaching and research experience in health and social care in both developing and developed countries. The intercalated BSc in international health is run by the institute, drawing on it's experience.

For more information about the intercalated BSc in international health course visit www.nuffield.leeds.ac.uk/content/teaching/bsc_int_health.asp or contact Kathi Pullan, course administrator, at k.pullan@leeds.ac.uk