Updated educational resources about innovation in global health

University of Copenhagen has hosted the Global Health Case Challenge seven times before but from 2021 it was offered as a summer course, giving the enrolled international students 2,5 ECTS upon completion of the course. In 2021 and 2022, the case provider is Laerdal Global Health and this year the students will be working on a case about maternity care education at resource-constrained educational institutions.

The educational format of a case challenge require that you obtain knowledge about innovation methods and processes, teamwork, pitching techniques, stakeholder and context analysis as well as in-dept knowledge about the case itself. To teach the students about these topics, University of Copenhagen has invited a range of experts and resources persons to give video lectures about the topics.

The updated materials for 2022 include a new video lecture about team work in innovation, one about the theory of change canvas and a new module about the case, including materials about the ‘epidemic’ of preventable deaths and disabilities during childbirth and health student’s education.  

Check out the video lectures below and feel free to get in contact with us on sgh@sund.ku.dk if you want to hear more about the additional educational resources following each lecture.

You can also find all lectures in this video channel.

Teamwork in Innovation

Lecturer: Anna Vestergaard Jacobsen and Peter Løvschall, Innovation Consultants, Faculty of Health and Medical Science, University of Copenhagen

About the lecture: The foundation of a good innovation process is a well-functioning team where team members work together towards a shared goal and bring their diversity into play in a safe and collaborative atmosphere. To create an effective teamwork requires effort and attention. This video lecture will introduce you to two models that describe key elements of good teamwork: Tuckman’s Team Phases, which describes the nature of team formation where teams go through different phases when working together; and Belbin’s 9 Team Roles, which introduces a model of team roles and diversity as a driver. The purpose of the lecture is to give your team tools to discuss your different strengths and challenges and evaluate the development of your collaboration.

Health innovation in low and middle income countries

Lecturer: Muhammad Hamid Zaman, Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering and International Health, Boston University

About the lecture: Technology and innovation is an integral part of healthcare, in both high income and low and middle income countries – yet low and middle income countries continue to fall behind in developing, implementing and scaling technologies. COVID-19 testing and vaccination is the latest case in point. This lecture is about the bottlenecks to technology development in low and middle income countries from the lens of technology innovation, innovation ecosystems and policies and institutional structures. It will introduce these key topics using examples and case studies that have either been successful or have failed. The lecture will analyse the key attributes of success and failures of technology. Furthermore, it will also focus on when, why and what kind of technology is needed, when is it necessary and what information it can and cannot provide. Failures either due to limitation of technology or due to poor implementation will also be discussed.

Understanding the foundation of innovation

Lecturer: Renzo R. Guinto, Medical Doctor, DrPH, Associate Professor, St. Luke’s Medical Center and Associate Researcher, University of Copenhagen

About the lectures: Before you start to think about solutions to a problem, you must first understand the problem at hand – and that means also knowing your environment, the people, and organisations that you will be working with, and most importantly, yourself. You must take a step back and reflect about several things before you start your ideation process. In these lectures, you will learn about yourself as a health innovator and ask yourself, “Why am I doing this in the first place?” You will also learn about your stakeholders – collaborators, potential challengers, and most importantly, end-users – so you can meet their needs, address their concerns, and harness their contributions. Finally, you will also learn about the environment in which your solution will operate – to ensure that pressing needs are truly addressed and contextual factors are considered in solution design.

Innovation in health

Lecturers: Anna Vestergaard Jacobsen and Peter Løvschall, Innovation Consultants, Faculty of Health and Medical Science, University of Copenhagen

About the lectures: In the first lecture, you will be introduced to health innovation and important principles for innovating in healthcare. There are many tools and methods to foster a good innovative process. You will get an overview of three different approaches with specific suggestions for tools you can apply to you own projects. After the lecture you should be able to select a structured approach to you own projects. In the second lecture we will dive into one of the three approached mentioned in the first lecture: the theory of change canvas. The theory of change canvas is the tool that enables you to structure the various elements of your innovation starting with “The problem” and “The desired impact”. The third lecture will introduce you to key concepts in a feasibility study, which – in short – is a study of the practicality of a proposed project, system or new innovation. The eleven steps described in this video lecture can be used as a foundation for your work process for a project or as key elements of your oral presentation of your project. You may also consider it as a checklist for assessing the feasibility of your project.

From storytelling to presentations and pitch

Lectures: Jonas Søgaard Grøn, Senior Advisor, and Marie Vinther Clausen, Communication Manager, Human and Legal Innovation Hub, University of Copenhagen

About the lectures: If you want to invite someone to buy into your idea or solution, you need to be able to share it in a convincing way. In these lectures, you will learn how to create a story around your solution and tell that story both on a stage as a presentation or in personal meetings. You will learn two different methods of storytelling, techniques for presentations and the principles of an effective pitch.