Global Health and Humanitarian Medicine Course
Frequently Asked Questions
About the course
A graduate degree in Modern Medicine (MBBS or equivalent) and a minimum of two years of work experience post-internship.
No, the course is open for all medical doctors with an interest and passion for tropical medicine, public health, and humanitarian work.
A panel of academicians, clinicians, and humanitarian aid professionals review each application. The panel takes the final call in the selection of the candidates. Candidates who are planning to / currently work or have worked in resource limited or complex humanitarian settings and have no access to post-graduate education are prioritized.
The course is designed only for medical doctors.
No, the course is open for all medical doctors, irrespective of their workplace.
The GHHM Course is highly demanding, and the enrolled students will need to meet the strict attendance requirement. Therefore, we encourage potential applicants to defer their application if they have taken any other full-time courses or have other pressing professional commitments. Any requests for deferral after admission will only be for exigent circumstances. In such cases, the decision of the GHHM committee is final and binding on the candidate.
Funding
GHHM offers 5% of its places free of charge to students from low-income or lower middle-income countries.
Who can apply:
• As with all GHHM places, applicants must be medical doctors
• Nationals of low-income or lower middle-income countries who are currently residing in low-income or lower middle-income countries
• Preference given to women bursary candidates (in case of equal qualification)
• Preference given to bursary candidates who do not yet hold a postgraduate qualification
• Applications are intended for doctors who have no possible way of paying the course fee. Flexible payment plans are available to doctors who can afford to pay but struggle to pay the full amount in one transaction.
What is included:
• Waiver of GHHM course fee
• Payment of your Diploma in Global Health exam fee if you complete the course (should you wish to attempt the exam – this is not compulsory)
• Access to the GHHM Alumni Community on completion of the course
• A GHHM bursary does not involve the award of any sum of money. GHHM course fees will be waived, and exam fees (where applicable) will be paid directly to the exam provider
How are bursaries awarded?
Award of GHHM bursaries is decided by a selection committee. The committee is formed of former GHHM students from low or middle-income countries and members of staff from MSF UK and MSF South Asia. Applications are anonymised, reviewed individually and then discussed as a group by the selection committee.
Since GHHM bursary places are limited, applicants are strongly encouraged to explore alternative funding opportunities.
To apply for a bursary, please follow this link ( https://forms.office.com/e/Y1s6tLHn5G?origin=lprLink )
No, there is no payback period associated with this course of any kind.
Course structure
It is a ten-month course. It runs from September to June.
This is an online course, which requires a student to attend a webinar/lecture on a real-time basis. The classes run from 1600-1800 IST every Thursday. The lectures can be accessed remotely using Zoom on a computer or a mobile phone. Additionally, the course has some mandatory activities which must be completed on the online platform.
On completion of GHHM you will have knowledge and understanding of:
• The key global health challenges and emerging threats to populations worldwide
• Evidence based decision making in clinical infectious diseases in resource challenged settings and humanitarian intervention contexts
• The principles of programmatic interventions in resource challenged settings and how to apply this to real world settings
• The inequities and inequalities faced by vulnerable groups accessing healthcare globally and strategies to address this
GHHM themes
• Non communicable disease and mental health
• Clinical infectious diseases
• Global public health
• Women's and child health
• Humanitarian medicine
Download the GHHM Course Prospectus for a full breakdown of the course.
Read the FAQs page for more details.
The webinars are hosted virtually from MSF South Asia /UK or collaborating institutes in
South Asia.
To complete the GHHM course, you must either attend the in-person training or attend the virtual laboratory training sessions synchronously.
The requirement for in-person parasitology training for the DTM&H exam is subject to the discretion of the examining body. Please refer to the DTM&H webpage to learn more about the current requirements.
The weekly lectures run from 16:00 to 18:00 IST every Thursday, but may go over time by about 15-20 minutes. You are expectedto spare approximately two and a half hours every week for these lectures.
In addition, there are weekly quizzes and fortnightly (mandatory) group activities that you have to complete before the given deadlines. This amounts to additional 2 hours per week. For each group activity, there will be a deadline of completion; you will have to complete that activity before the deadline. Your contribution to the group activity is marked as attendance.
We recommend that students be willing to commit 6-8 hours of self-directed learning per week for an optimal learning experience.
The minimum requirement for the course completion is:
70% attendance in the weekly webinars.
Contribution to 70% of the online group activities
Participation in the 16 hours of parasitology laboratory training
Participation in the Mock Exam
70% attendance in the weekly webinars.
Contribution to 70% of the online group activities
Participation in the 16 hours of parasitology laboratory training
Participation in the Mock Exam
Like all part-time courses, enrollment to the GHHM course will require consistent effort and time, along with your other professional and personal commitments. If you are struggling to meet requirements, please contact the South Asia GHHM Team at the earliest.
Failure to meet any of the attendance mentioned above criteria, which also includes contributing to 70% of online group activities or attending 70% of the lectures, would result in ineligibility to receive the GHHM Course Completion Certificate. If candidates do not complete the GHHM Course and receive the Course Completion Certificate, they will be unable to sit the DTM&H exam.
You will not be eligible to write the DTM&H examination and your GHHM course remains incomplete.
Examination and Course Completion
DGH exam:
200 'best of five' question testing all aspects of the GHHM syllabus (3 hours)
Please refer the RCP website for more details regarding the exam.
1. Morning – 100 'best of five' questions, 16 of which are based on clinical images designed to test the candidate's knowledge of tropical medicine and hygiene over a wide area (3 hours).
2. Afternoon – Preventive medicine (5 questions over 1 hour) and Parasitology/Entomology ''short answer'' papers (1.5 hours).
No, it is not. There is no exit exam for the GHHM course. You will receive a course completion certificate if you meet certain criteria (listed later in the FAQs)
Both the DGH and DTM&H exams are administered online.
A student can attempt the exam up to 6 times.
Yes, on successful completion of the course, MSF will provide a certificate of completion.
Yes, as long as you have completed the GHHM course successfully, you will receive a Course Completion Certificate. The certificate, in itself, has indefinite validity. It also enables you to write the exam upto 5 years after completing the course.
Yes, as long as you have completed the GHHM course successfully.
Yes, you will have to pay the DTM&H examination fees to the organisation administering the exam.