Global Health Education in Italy: the experience of Riisg (Italian network for Global Health teaching)

Globalisation processes, the growing complexity of European society and the yet largely untackled issue of health inequalities are increasingly questioning the capacity of medical education institutions to prepare health professionals capable of addressing current health challenges. A call for a greater focus on the social determinants of health and on the global scenario is revitalising the claim for a transformation of conventional health training. In Italy, students have been leaders in advocating for such change, finding in the emerging field of global health (GH) suitable theoretical and practical tools. Due to the innovative view and aims of GH, training health professionals in it is a crucial issue. Teaching can be seen both as a GH activity (therefore reflecting the tight combination of practice, knowledge and ethics that informs this particular field), and as a tool aimed at contributing to the overall goal of health promotion. With the aim of improving knowledge, attitude and practices of health professionals, Public health academics, as well as NGOs, have lead in 2009 to the creation of the Italian Network for Global Health Education (RIISG). The main objective of RIISG is to improve population health and to reduce health inequalities through enhancing knowledge, attitude and practices of health professionals. To accomplish this, RIISG aims to foster public and academic debate on GH issues, promotes GH teaching at the academic and professional level to fill the gap of present medical curriculum, training professionals to become ethically aware of the commitment needed to improve individual and community health and to encourage the dialogue among different disciplines and stakeholders. In its view, GH is meant to be a new paradigm for health and health care, grounded in the theory of health determinants.