Education and teaching at Global Disaster Medicine - Health Needs and Response

Erasmus Mundus Master Programme - Public Health in Disasters

Our Erasmus Mundus Master programme in Public Health in Disasters provides students with an exclusive opportunity when it comes to education and training in the field of public health in disasters. It is the only Erasmus Mundus Master programme at Karolinska Institutet.

About the programme

We are one of three partners in a joint Erasmus Mundus Master degree programme, along with the Universidad de Oviedo in Spain and the University of Nicosia in Cyprus. It is a two-year long master programme, comprising 120 ECTs, that intends to build capacity that will reduce disaster risks and contribute to a better and more targeted public health-based relief following disasters. The programme is taught by top-level professional with personal experience of working in health care in disaster situations. The aim of the programme is to give the students plenty of both practical and theoretical training in health care in disasters and global medicine, in order to prepare them for a wide number of professional opportunities.

During the semester spent at KI, the students take three courses: 

• Global Health and Disasters (7.5 ECTs)
  The course provides students with an improved understanding of the concept of global health and the impact of disasters on our health, both as individuals and on societies. 
• Public Health Response in Health Crisis and Disasters (15 ECTs)
  The course provides students with the tools to understand, assess, analyse, plan, and implement health interventions in crises and disasters.  
• Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods in Disasters (7.5 ECTs)
  The course provides students with an introduction to qualitative research and how it can be used in evaluations of health care interventions in disasters. 

These courses are also available as free-standing courses (see below), which contributes to a mix of students and a diverse learning environment. 

In addition to the three courses during the semester at KI, some students in the programme will also write their thesis here, which means they spend another semester at KI. 

Health Assistance in Humanitarian Crisis - Professional training course in collaboration Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Sweden

We teach a professional education course (uppdragsutbildning) called Health Assistance in Humanitarian Crisis, aimed at health care and medical staff who are preparing to do a field mission abroad.

Please note that this is a professional training course. To be able to attend you should either be in the recruitment process for a position with Médecins Sans Frontières (Läkare utan Gränser) Sweden or your employer should support your participation. 

About the course

The course awards 12 ECTs and is taught across four course modules. Participants can chose to take all modules or only some. The course provides concrete tools for planning and implementing humanitarian health assistance. The basis of the course is the global health situation and determinants for health. It illustrates how context and different types of disasters affect public health. The course highlights health strategies aimed at reducing morbidity and mortality. The course is taught, in Swedish, through a combination of web-based learning and teaching on campus at Karolinska Institutet in Solna. 

The four course modules are: 

• Global health, disasters and health crises (3 ECTs)
• Project planning and response in disasters and health crises (3 ECTs)
• Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), as well as child health in disasters and health crises (3 ECTs, only suitable for participants with a clinical professional background)
• Disasters, health crises and communicable and non-communicable diseases, as well as epidemic outbreaks (3 ECTs, only suitable for participants with a clinical professional background)

Teaching methods

• Interactive lectures
• Discussion seminars
• Case-based group assignments
• Clinical simulation exercises

Course contacts

For more information about course content, please contact Anneli Eriksson, anneli.eriksson@ki.se. 

If you are going to take the course via Médecins Sans Frontières, please contact Eugene Bushayija, Eugene.Bushayija@stockholm.msf.org. 

If you are interested in applying to this course but are not a prospective staff member of Médecins Sans Frontières please contact Kristoffer Mörtsjö, kristoffer.mortsjo@ki.se for more information about the registration process and fee.

Disaster medicine courses for medical students at KI

We teach short courses in disaster medicine for specialist doctors and medical students at KI, in the form of an elective course called Katastrofmedicin SVK. The content of the courses includes; principles of clinical care, decision making with limited resources, and context in disasters. The course also gives students an overview of the direct and indirect effects of a disaster on public health and health care systems.

During the spring and autumn semester we also arrange a special one-day course in disaster medicine for all final year medical students at KI, called Decision-making with limited resources. The focus of this one-day course is on triage, prioritisation, and how to best make decisions when not all, or even most, of the facts in a case or event are known. 

Courses for specialist medical staff

Since 2018 we have conducted specialist courses on behalf of the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen), also known as SK-courses. The specialist courses are state-funded courses for medical doctors who are doing their specialised medical training in Sweden (specialiseringstjänstgöring). The courses are focused on decision-making with limited resources, triage, and disaster medicine.