Education and teaching at Global Disaster Medicine - Health Needs and Response
At Global Disaster Medicine - Health Needs and Response we have extensive experience in teaching and lecturing in disaster medicine, public health in disasters, global health in relation to disasters, prioritisation, triage and decision-making. Our staff draw extensively on their research and their experience of field work in disasters in their teaching. We teach a variety of courses in disaster medicine, including professional training and an Erasmus Mundus Master programme.
AnTriEx and ViTriEX - simulation tools for teaching and training
AnTriEx and ViTriEx
AnTriEx and ViTriEx are tools for simulation exercises in mass casualty scenarios developed by us 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 focuses on high quality education and training in the field of public health in disaster situations. It is the only Erasmus Mundus Master programme at Karolinska Institutet.
The application is now open for the autumn semester 2025!
Find out more and submit your application via the programme's website. Deadline for applications is the 25th of January 2025.
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.
Erasmus Mundus Master programme website and course catalogue
Free-standing courses in disaster medicine
In the spring semester of 2025, we offer three free-standing courses in disaster medicine. The courses are taught in conjunction with our Erasmus Mundus Master's programme, which contributes to a global atmosphere in the classroom and excellent opportunities for exchange of experience with other students.
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.
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.
The next time the course is scheduled to be held is spring 2025.
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 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 modules are:
- Global Health and Humanitarian Crises
- Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, and Child Health in Humanitarian Crises (only suitable for participants with a clinical professional background)
- Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases in Humanitarian Crises. Epidemic outbreaks (only suitable for participants with a clinical professional background)
- Project Planning and Response in Humanitarian Crises
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.
Health Assistance in Humanitarian Crisis on KI's education website
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.