Postgraduate Certificate - Introduction to Tropical Medicine and Challenges in International Health
Deadline: 31 July 2025 for the course of 2025-2026
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Postgraduate Certificate
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20 ECTS Credits
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English
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General information
This postgraduate certificate programme consists of two courses:
- Introduction to Tropical Medicine
- Challenges in International Health
FOR WHOM?
Are you a nurse/midwife, or another health professional? Do you want to gain or refresh your knowledge on diseases and health problems specific to tropical regions and contexts of vulnerability? Are you eager to broaden your horizons in health? Do you want to be better equipped to work in emergencies or with people in vulnerable situations globally? Do you have ambitions for a career in international health at local, national and international organizations?
Then this postgraduate certificate programme is for you.
Introduction to Tropical Medicine (INTROMED):
WHAT?
This short course offers essential clinical and biomedical knowledge on diseases and health problems that occur in (sub)tropical settings and in vulnerable life stages (for example childhood or pregnancy), or other vulnerable settings (for example epidemics or migration). This course is an introduction for health professionals who lack exposure to these conditions or lack prior training.
HOW?
This course brings together ITM's expertise from different countries affected by tropical diseases and health problems. The content is based on scientific studies and enriched by in-house experiences and innovations.
The 4-weeks course is offered in a “blended” format, with interactive online self-paced study material, and real time seminars (preferably face-to-face but online participation is possible, once a week on Friday). It can suit you as a working student, on the condition that you are free one morning per week, for real-time seminars.
INTROMED is organised in English in September and in French in March-April.
Challenges in International Health (CIH):
WHY?
Recent diseases outbreaks such as the Ebola virus and the COVID-19 pandemic, and humanitarian emergencies due to the climate crises have urged health actors globally to recognise the need for improved crisis preparedness and emergency response. Due to demographic transitions, countries are faced with a rise in non-communicable diseases, while the prevention and control of infectious diseases still pose major challenges. Policy makers and governments need to ensure universal access to good quality care for all while paying particular attention to people in vulnerable situations.
Some dichotomies such as local versus global, tropical versus non-tropical, communicable versus non-communicable, imported versus domestic are losing their relevance. International health needs to encompass all these perspectives/dimensions.
These challenges require context-adapted and multidisciplinary responses. Evidence from basic and implementation research will be important to guide decision makers and health workers across the globe.
WHAT?
This course on “Challenges in International Health” will provide you with a good understanding of the complex picture of health challenges globally in general and in deprived, vulnerable settings in particular. Through case studies from various settings, you will analyse the social, anthropological, political, economic and ecological determinants of health, and address health problems from different perspectives including disease control, health service organisation and health policies. You will gain understanding of the complexity of health challenges and learn how to develop, implement, and evaluate health interventions and formulate communication strategies. The course will give you both the theoretical and practical toolsets you need to advance your career.
HOW?
The 12-week course takes place on-campus at ITM. You will learn from the scientific expertise and field experience of a multidisciplinary teaching team and from your collaboration with a diverse group of fellow students from other disciplines (such as doctors, sociologists, pharmacists or biomedical professionals) and from different continents.
“Challenges in International Health” is organised in English in autumn (October-December) and in French in spring (April-June).
Learning objectives
Upon completion of Introduction to Tropical Medicine, you will be able to:
Specific skills
- Describe the essential biomedical and clinical aspects of the main tropical and infectious diseases (Vaccine preventable diseases; Epidemic-prone diseases; Vector-borne diseases; Sexually Transmitted Infections; and Other Tropical Diseases) in terms of diagnosis, care, and prevention
- Analyse simple clinical cases of common tropical and infectious diseases and propose diagnostic and treatment approaches
- Explain the specificity of health problems, including undernourishment, in children and discuss their integrated management
- Identify the specific challenges of laboratory diagnosis in low-resource environments
Generic skills
- Work independently
- Search information in reliable sources
- Collaborate in a team
Upon completion of Challenges in International Health, you will be able to:
Specific skills
- Assess the importance and burden of a particular health problem in terms of frequency, severity, inequity, and socio-economic cost, in stable and outbreak settings
- Discuss the different risk factors and determinants (ecological, genetic, social, economic, behavioural, health system-related) of health and well-being of populations, including populations in vulnerable situations (such as migrants, children, adolescents, pregnant women, key populations, … )
- Formulate evidence-based and context-specific health programmes/interventions in stable and crisis contexts with the available resources and the stakeholders' perspectives;
- Define the main public health interventions, with their implementation challenges, to prevent and/or control a health problem with particular attention to screening, surveillance, outbreak investigation, control and elimination, emergency responses, reproductive and child health programmes and using multisectoral approaches
- Assess (local) health systems in terms of access, quality of care, organisation of service delivery, stewardship, and intersectoral interfaces and collaborations
- Critically appraise the crisis preparedness and responsiveness of health systems and health policies to current and emerging challenges
- Discuss the major issues in international/global health policy and the development agenda (SDGs) including the role and agency of health policy actors at all levels
Specific learning outcomes for students taking the course component “Field Laboratory preparedness” (CC4) as alternative for “Health in vulnerable situations”
- Critically assess the set-up of a field laboratory and propose interventions to improve its organization
- Identify priority actions to assure the quality of a laboratory in terms of accuracy, reliability, and timeliness of the results
- Explore research opportunities within a diagnostic laboratory
Generic skills
- Search for information in reliable sources
- Show evidence of a critical and value-based attitude
- Communicate and collaborate in a multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural setting
- Work independently
- Develop life-long learning skills
*Courses and programmes can be subject to change.
Programme director(s)
- Ludwig Apers
Programme coordinator(s)
- Deogratias Katsuva
Programme administrator(s)
- Anne Thoelen
- Gerlinde Segers
- Cathy Liu
Contact
- tmih@itg.be