HLSC679 - Global Perspectives on Healthcare

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Nil

Unit rationale, description and aim

Health systems and the delivery of healthcare are complex and multi-faceted, even more so in different countries where health care priorities and access to health care resources may vary. As we live in a rapidly changing and increasingly globalised society, aspiring healthcare leaders require an understanding of healthcare from a global perspective. This is significant for managers and policy makers because the complexity of healthcare systems and services can affect the way that they manage their relationships with consumers and the delivery of health care. In this unit, students will have the opportunity to examine healthcare in different countries related to political, economic, sociocultural, technological, and environmental standpoints. It also offers an international ‘lens’ through which to reflect on experiences and, thus, the opportunity to broaden and deepen the range of skills required for working in local and/or global contexts.  

The aim of this unit is to provide students the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of healthcare delivery in different countries to equip them with a conceptual understanding and a set of tools to address major health challenges from a health systems and delivery perspective. 

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

Content

Topics will include:

• Global health in context
• Global burden of disease
• Global health priorities
• Global challenges facing health management
• Emerging models of health service delivery in resource-limited settings
• Health policies in developing countries to improve specific communities’ health for disadvantaged groups, including:
• Indigenous peoples in different countries
• People with disability
• People living in poverty
• Global health leadership
• Global health governance
• International Organizations supporting global health
• Healthcare leadership and sustainable development goals
• Values-based leadership in global healthcare

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

ACU Online

This unit uses an active learning approach to support students in the exploration of knowledge essential to the discipline. Students will have the opportunity to reflect on global health and policy that impacts on healthcare, including evaluating how political, economic, sociocultural, technological, and environmental situations impact on health care. In constructing knowledge about the complexity of health care and the implications of a global healthcare background, relate this to social and health-related outcomes, students will identify areas that healthcare leaders can impact outcomes.

This unit utilises an asynchronous (“anywhere, anytime learning”) as well as synchronous, for example, via live video conference sessions scheduled periodically during the teaching period. An active learning approach whereby students engage in readings and reflections, e-Module activities and opportunities to collaborate asynchronously with peers via online discussion forums. In addition, learning e-modules and links to electronic readings will be provided on the learning environment online to guide students’ reading and extend learning. 

Assessment strategy and rationale

To pass this unit, students are expected to submit three graded assessment tasks. In addition, students must achieve a cumulative grade of at least 50% across all assessments. The assessment strategy used allows for the progressive development of knowledge and skills necessary for the student to be able to analyse and evaluate global perspectives on healthcare leadership and management in healthcare which they can utilise in health service delivery. The assessment tasks for this unit are designed for the student to demonstrate their achievement of each learning outcome, allowing the student to graduate with the knowledge and skill that offers an international lens, to work in local and/or global contexts

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Baltagi, Lagravinese, R., Moscone, F., & Tosetti, E. (2017). Health Care Expenditure and Income: A Global Perspective. Health Economics, 26(7), 863–874. https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.3424

Byskov, Maluka, S., Marchal, B., Shayo, E. H., Blystad, A., Bukachi, S., Zulu, J. M., Michelo, C., Hurtig, A.-K., & Bloch, P. (2019). A systems perspective on the importance of global health strategy developments for accomplishing today’s Sustainable Development Goals (vol 34, pg 635, 2019). Health Policy and Planning, 34(10), 800–800. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czz124

Figueroa, C. A., Harrison, R., Chauhan, A., & Meyer, L. (2019). Priorities and challenges for health leadership and workforce management globally: a rapid review. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1). Biomedcentral. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4080-7

Gilson, L., & Agyepong, I. A. (2018). Strengthening health system leadership for better governance: what does it take? Health Policy and Planning, 33(suppl_2), ii1–ii4. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czy052

Greener, I. (2020) “Healthcare Funding and Its Relationship to Equity and Outcomes: A QCA Analysis of Commonwealth Fund and OECD Data, Journal of European Social Policy, 30(4) pp480-495 doi

Greener, I. (2021). Comparing health systems. Policy Press.

Marmot, M. (2016). The health gap : the challenge of an unequal world. Bloomsbury Press.

McCartney, Hearty, W., Arnot, J., Popham, F., Cumbers, A., & McMaster, R. (2019). Impact of political economy on population health: A systematic review of reviews. American Journal of Public Health, 109(6), E1–E12. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2019.305001

Rajan, S., Ricciardi, W., & McKee, M. (2020). The SDGs and health systems: the last step on the long and unfinished journey to universal health care? European Journal of Public Health, 30(Supplement_1), i28–i31. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckaa035

Revill, P., Suhrcke, M., Moreno-Serra, R., Sculpher, M., & Goddard, M. (2020). Global Health Economics. In World Scientific Series in Global Health Economics and Public Policy. WORLD SCIENTIFIC. https://doi.org/10.1142/11045

Thapa, G., Jhalani, M., García-Saisó, S., Malata, A., Roder-DeWan, S., & Leslie, H. H. (2019). High quality health systems in the SDG era: Country-specific priorities for improving quality of care. PLoS Medicine, 16(10), e1002946–e1002946. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002946

Yamada , T. ., Chen , C. C. ., Zeng , W. ., Levine, B. ., & Carter, J. M. . (2022). Global Perspectives of Different Healthcare Systems and Health: Income, Education, Health Disparity, Health Behaviors and Public Health in China, Japan and USA. Current Overview on Disease and Health Research Vol. 8, 86–121. https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/codhr/v8/6523F