The Institute for Social medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics (Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin) and IPPNW offered a one-day Global Health Conference about 

"Corporate Capture of Health - a threat to Science and Democracy?"

Within our evolving global system, escalating health care costs and apparent inefficiencies in public health care provision are increasingly being dealt with through investment from the corporate sector. Through the privatisation of health care and public health institutions efficiency is allegedly enhanced through competition. We observe an increasing market-driven re-structuring of the health sector across the globe, leading to a "medicalisation" of life and "commercialisation" of health. The effects of corporate capture of health are becoming increasingly visible, in Germany and elsewhere.

During our 3rd public Global Health Conference we discussed the ongoing conversion of health from a basic human right and common good to an economic commodity. Different voices represented current developments, alternative approaches and future perspectives during the day. An interdisciplinary panel including physicians, economists, social scientists and activists debated the burning issues and jointly outlined ways forward.

Objective and Course structure 

Since the Summer Schools Global Health topics are also considered interesting for the general public, it was decided in 2012 to add a one-day Global Health Conference for an interested wider auditorium. The Conference aims to present the summer schools content, enable in-depth debates, while including the Summer Schools participants acquired expertise.

The Conference opened with an introduction to health challenges in a Global Health context; while in the morning specific challenges to the Conference annual topic were debated, in the afternoon the focus was on solutions and wider interaction with the auditorium.

We used expert presentations and interactive workshops, as well as a panel discussion at the end of the day.

The Conference is relevant to medical and public health students as well as students from other faculties and the interested general public. 

Speakers

Speakers came from national and international institutions of higher education. Persons with specific international health competence and experience were also part of the faculty. More details...

Conference certificate

A conference certificate will be issued at the end of the day.

Course coordination

Lisa Bäuerle and Mathias Krisam

globalhealth[at]ippnw.de

Course directors 

Dr. med. Peter Tinnemann, MPH, Charité Universitätsmedizin

Frank Uhe, IPPNW Germany

Contact-Address

IPPNW - Global Health Summer School
Körtestraße 10
10967 Berlin