COVID-19 has upended the world of higher education as well as our everyday lives. It has made clear the challenge of online and in-person COVID-19 education for students in the clinical health professions, health administration & policy, public health, and other graduate and undergraduate students.
A response to this challenge
COVID-19 Global Lessons Learned: Interactive Case Studies is a response to this challenge. It provides interactive materials ideal for online as well as in-person education using the Jones and Bartlett Learning enriched e-book format.
COVID-19 Global Lessons Learned will be a set of 6 case studies designed to provide a comprehensive overview of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each case begins with an extended case study and then takes a question/answer approach to discuss the issues raised in the case study. The case studies utilize videos, websites, and printable PDFs which summarize the material. They include discussion questions as well as objective questions and answers.
Faculty-only materials include an Instructor’s Guide with tips on teaching as well as issues to address in each of the discussion questions for all the case studies. A Test Bank provides additional objective questions for use in student assessment.
The first three case studies are designed to teach “what you need to know” to understand the COVID-19 pandemic and are available now for use in fall 2020 courses. These case studies are:
- Clinical Course of COVID-19 which explains four typical presentations of COVID-19 and examines key clinical and virology concepts
- Epidemiology of COVID-19 which reviews the virus outbreak on the cruise ship Diamond Princess and explores key epidemiological concepts needed to understand the pandemic
- Testing and COVID-19 which starts with the South Korean success story and explores key concepts in COVID-19 diagnosis, screening, and assessing severity and prognosis
These three case studies are applicable to a wide range of students in the U.S. and abroad including introductory clinical students, health administration & policy students, health & wellness courses, as well as public health students.
- Population Prevention and COVID-19 begin by looking at the Ebola epidemic using a communicable disease framework and then applying that framework to COVID-19 in order to understand disease detection, containment, mitigation, immunization, and monitoring.
- Treatment for COVID-19 starts with an in-depth case study envisioning a patient with COVID-19 in 2024. The development and approval of treatment options are examined including antivirals, a treatment that bolster or dampen the immune system, and treatments that prevent or minimize body-wide damage.
- Health Policy, Communications & COVID-19 begins by looking at the impacts of stay-at-home health policies. It explores the tools of disease modeling for prediction, options for intervention, and key communication concepts for implementing health policies. It ends with a look at the International Health Regulations, their history, and their potential for dealing with pandemics.
This second set of three case studies builds on the first three. The Population Prevention case study can be used for a wide range of audiences, while the Treatment case study is ideal for clinical students and the Health Policy & Communications case studies should enhance the education of health administration & policy as well as public health students. None of the case studies assume any public health, clinical, virology, or health policy background.
Additionally, the COVID-19 interactive case studies can be bundled with any Jones and Bartlett Learning publication at no additional charge (excluding inclusive access). They will also be included as part of the new enriched e-book for Public Health 101: Improving Community Health, Third Edition when it is published October 15.
COVID-19 is the ultimate population health challenge
Population health has emerged as a way of thinking and a way of acting that brings together the tools of traditional public health, healthcare delivery, and health policy to address some of our most complex health problems. COVID-19 has become the ultimate population health challenge.
Jones and Bartlett Learning has developed a Population Health series that includes six Primers or short texts that teach principles, skills, and applications of population health.Population Health: A Primer as well as Biostatistics for Population Health: A Primer is currently available. Climate Change & Population Health: A Primer will be published in October 2020.
Additional Primers on the Opioid Crisis & Population Health, Health Information Systems for Population Health, and Global Population Health will be published in spring 2021. The COVID-19 case studies will be available as part of the Population Health series.
COVID-19 will fade into history but the concepts taught in these interactive case studies should serve your students for many years to come.
About the Author
Richard K. Riegelman, MD, MPH, PhD is Professor of Epidemiology, Medicine, and Health Policy, and Founding Dean of the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health in Washington, DC.
Dr. Riegelman has over 70 publications including 6 books for students and practitioners of medicine and public health. He is currently the editor of two Jones & Bartlett Learning book series: the well-established Essential Public Health series and the new Population Health Primer series.
