Learning from the Past to Inform the Future: Perspectives on Future Directions in International Health and Research

The field of global health has increasingly captured international attention in recent years. The spread of infectious diseases across international borders has sparked significant public attention as well as interest among healthcare workers, researchers, and educators. While the field provides a wide range of exciting opportunities, its historical roots in colonialism and saviorism remain in our current approaches to training and implementation. This chapter presents an overview of the challenges faced in global health training from the perspective of current and recently graduated trainees. Key issues include the gender disparity in leadership positions and insufficient efforts to improve the diversity, inclusion, and retention of minoritized trainees. We also address the growing calls to decolonize global health training and curriculum, examine the role that medicine plays in perpetuating these practices, and discuss how training costs hinder people from low- to middle-income countries and diverse socio-cultural backgrounds from advancing in the field of global health. We highlight our collective experiences in global health research and clinical training to emphasize the need for a new vision and approach to training future global health leaders. Furthermore, we aim to offer constructive criticism of the existing institutional system frameworks, and most importantly, we aim to align ourselves with the voices of those who have fiercely advocated for a more inclusive field.