AUGUST 14, 2009
Global Health Leaders Attend Berkeley-Barcelona Certificate Program
The second of two annual sessions of the Global Health Leadership Forum (GHLF), a program for health care leaders and executives from around the world, was held in Barcelona in late June 2009. Twenty-one participants from countries including the United States, United Kingdom, China, Malaysia, Nigeria, Qatar, Uganda, India, Spain and Germany, attended the Barcelona session to hear expert speakers address key health policy and management issues. The first 2009 session was held in Berkeley in January.
The UC Berkeley School of Public Health produces the program in partnership with the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics and the Health Care Research Center.
"This year's sessions were very successful," said Meg Kellogg, program director. "We had many outstanding health care leaders from around the globe, and the speeches and group discussions were especially lively."
The GHLF is an earned certificate program focusing on health management, policy and leadership issues. Participants grapple in a practical manner with the health policy issues and options that have been converging internationally. The winter session is held for six days in Berkeley, followed by a summer session held for six days in Barcelona. Over the six years that the program has been offered, 180 executives from 43 countries have participated.
The Barcelona program featured several engaging debates, including a discussion about the role of private health insurance in the health care industry between Alex Preker, lead economist for health, nutrition and population for West Africa with the World Bank, and Neelam Sekhri Feachem, CEO of the Healthcare Redesign Group. A debate over pharmaceuticals—cost containment strategies and incentivizing access and innovation—was also held.
New speakers included Peter Berman, professor of population and international health economics at Harvard School of Public Health, who analyzed the key elements in a health system and emphasized the importance of health care delivery in regards to cost. Josep Figueras, director of the European Observatory of Health Systems, also spoke about health reform trends in Europe.
The first session next year will be held January 10-16, 2010, at UC Berkeley. For more information and to register, visit the Global Health Leadership Forum web site.