About Us

Education for Health is dedicated to the dissemination of work consistent with the organization’s mission and objectives in international health. It publishes original contributions of interest to health and clinical practitioners, educators, policy makers, administrators, and learners in the health professions. Specifically this focus is on global models of health system integration and health professions education that lead to improved health and health care delivery.

The journal team includes:

ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Jan van Dalen, Maastricht University, the Netherlands
Noel Juban, University of the Phillipines, the Phillipines
Pertti Kekki, University of Helsinki, Finland
Jane Westberg, University of Colorado, USA
Robert Woollard, University of British Columbia, Canada

MANAGING EDITOR
Marie-Louise Panis, The Network: TUFH, the Netherlands

JOURNAL SECRETARY
Angelique van den Heuvel, The Network: TUFH, the Netherlands

BOOK AND ELECTRONIC MEDIA REVIEW EDITOR
Judith Gravdal, Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, USA

COPY EDITOR
Katie Baillie, University of North Carolina, USA

INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL BOARD
Jack Boulet, FAIMER, USA
William Burdick, FAIMER, USA
Zenobia Chan, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Robbert Duvivier, Maastrict University, the Netherlands
Rita Giacaman, Birzeit University, Palestine
Trevor Gibbs, Ukraine National Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education, Ukraine
Rogayah Ja'afar, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
Hilliard Jason, University of Colorado, USA
Tadahiko Kozu, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Japan
Theo Lippeveld, John Snow Inc., USA
Martin Lipsky, University of Illinois, USA

JOURNAL STAFF Michael Glasser, Co-Editor-in-Chief Michael Glasser, Ph.D., is Associate Dean for Rural Health Professions at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford, and Co-Director of the National Center for Rural Health Professions (NCRHP). Dr. Glasser is also Co-Director of the Masters of Public Health Program, on the Rockford campus, a division of the School of Public Health ,University of Illinois at Chicago. He is Principal Investigator for an NIH-funded Project EXPORT Center, through the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. This is a four-year grant to establish a Center for Excellence in Rural Health to identify, reduce, and eliminate health disparities in rural and underserved populations. In addition to serving as Co-Editor of Education for Health, Dr. Glasser is on the editorial board of the Journal for Rural Health. Dr. Glasser has a masters degree from Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, and a doctorate in Medical Sociology from the University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois Areas of research interest include rural health delivery and health professions education, patient-provider relationships, older adult health care, networks of support for older adults, and the study of mental health and chronic disease. For the MPH Program, Dr. Glasser teaches Health Education/Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences in Public Health. He also teaches community-based health care delivery to students in the Rural Medical Education (RMED) Program. Dr. Glasser is a member of the Delta Omega Society , the National Public Health Honor Society.
Donald Pathman, Co-Editor-in-Chief Dr. Donald Pathman, MD, MPH, is Professor and Research Director at the Department of Family Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and  Director of the Program on Health Professions and Primary Care at UNC's Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research. For the past 10 years he has also directed UNC's National Research Service Award Primary Care Research Fellowship, overseeing the research training of junior and mid-career general internists, general pediatricians and family physicians. Among the awards he has received are the Distinguished Investigator Award  from the Cecil G. Sheps Center and to have been appointed Scholar in Residence at the American Academy of Family Physicians' Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Practice and Primary Care. Dr. Pathman has numerous peer-reviewed publications (70+) and has served as principal and lead investigator on studies in the areas of health workforce distribution, health care access in rural areas, racial-ethnic disparities  in care, training physicians for rural and community-responsive roles, developing the research foundation of primary care practice, and  disseminating clinical practice guidelines. He has led numerous evaluations of public and educational programs in these areas. He has served as editorial board member for such journals as Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, the Journal of Rural Health, and Family  Medicine.Dr. Pathman has been a practicing family physician for over 20 years and still sees patients at a UNC-affiliated, 20-bed hospital in rural Chatham County, North Carolina, USA.
Jan van Dalen, Associate Editor As a clinical psychologist, Jan is responsible for the teaching and assessment of communication skills at the Skillslab, Faculty of Medicine of Maastricht University since 1978. His work consists of conducting skills training, faculty development, skills assessment, curriculum planning and supervising research in medical education. Next to participation in the Skillslab-administration, further aspects of his work are the development and facilitation of workshops on problem based learning and teaching and assessment of communication skills, as well as specialised courses communication skills, both in the Netherlands and abroad. Jan has (co)authored four books on communication skills for health care professionals. His PhD, awarded in September 2001, addressed the development of communication skills in medical students. Since 2001 he is the programme director of Maastricht’s Master of Health Professions Education (MHPE) programme.
Noel Juban, Associate Editor Noel Juban, MD, MSc, is Director of the Institute of Clinical Epidemiology at the National Institutes of Health, University of the Philippines-Manila and concurrently the Chair of the Department of Clinical Epidemiology at College of Medicine in the same University. Dr. Juban has a master degree in epidemiology from the University of the Philippines Manila where he also obtained his Doctor of Medicine degree and was a Fogarty Fellow under the Brown University AIDS Program. As Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, he serves as faculty preceptor for the community-based health program of the college for the past 16 years. He advises students and residents-in-training in family and community medicine on their research undertakings in the community and in the clinics. He also handles the courses on basic epidemiology and research methodology for the medical students as well as teaches in the graduate programs. As an epidemiologist, he also attends to research consultations of students, residents-in-training from various hospitals, and pharmaceuticals. Some of his works deals on research prioritization, essential national health research agenda, the national baseline health surveys, program evaluations, pharmaco-epidemiology and rational drug use in the community. Being trained in psychology in his undergraduate, health social science is also high on his agenda together with AIDS and health systems research.
Pertti Kekki, Associate Editor Pertti Kekki started his career as primary care physician, continued as a health center physician and director of a health center with 160 employees. He is the foundation professor of General Practice and Primary Health Care at the University of Helsinki and the Department Chairman since the early 1980’s. He studied at the University of >Helsinki and is a specialist in general practice and health services administration. During the health center period he studied at the University of Edinburgh (Diploma in Community Medicine) and at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, from where he earned his Doctor of Science degree in healthcare organization and health services research. Since early 1980’s he is a frequently used adviser in WHO workshops, meetings and consultations on primary health care, management, quality of health care, and human resources development. Since 1992 he is the Head of a WHO Collaborating Centre for the Development of Human Resources for Health in Primary Health Care. He is the founder and director of the international postgraduate programs (Diploma and Masters) in Healthcare quality improvement and leadership development his Department is currently offering to eligible health professionals. He has a long experience from WONCA in the 1980’s and from the Network since late 1980’s. He is an associate editor of the Network Journal. He has published over 250 articles and other publications, and supervised about 100 masters and 15 doctoral theses. Expertise: primary health care, evaluative health services research including quality, medical and health professions education.
Jane Westberg, Associate Editor Jane Westberg, PhD, is Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. A major focus of her career has been working with others towards the goal of compassionate, high-quality healthcare for all people in the world. Currently, she tries to do this through writing, editing, and teaching. Jane’s writing includes articles, chapters and 7 books on learning and teaching. Also, she frequently contributes articles on health-related issues to Winds of Change – an American Indian-produced magazine. Jane particularly enjoys listening to and writing about courageous people who are making a significant, positive difference in the lives of others. Jane and her husband and colleague, Hilliard (Hill) Jason, M.D., Ed.D, consult with and do workshops for teachers and learners in the health professions around the world.
Robert Woollard, Associate Editor Robert Woollard, MD, CCFP, FCFP is Royal Canadian Legion Professor and Head of the Department of Family Practice, Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia in Canada. He currently chairs the Committee on the Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools (CACMS) and the Committee on the Accreditation of Continuing Medical Education (CACME) and sits on the Executive of the international Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). He has chaired senior committees, councils and task forces for the BC Medical Association, Canadian Medical Association and the College of Family Physicians of Canada in the areas of medical education, environmental health and ethical relations with industry. His primary research focus is the study of complex adaptive systems as they apply to the intersection between human and environmental health. His book, “Fatal Consumption: Rethinking Sustainable Development” details his work in this regard. His background in the full continuum of the life-long-learning of physicians has informed his commitment to understanding the links between medical education and health outcomes. He is Co-Chair of the UBC Task Force on Healthy and Sustainable Communities and has provided leadership in a number of major initiatives grant-funded through the Science Council of British Columbia, the Tri Council Research Fund and is currently a co-investigator in a Major Collaborative Research Initiative (MCRI) grant being administered through the Sustainable Development Research Institute. He is a member of the SDRI, Centre for Health Services and Policy Research and the Institute of Health Promotion Research. He is Chair of the Board of the CHF Partners in Rural Development, an international development organization. He has completed a five year, five university CIDA project on Localized Poverty Reduction in Vietnam. He has assisted in the development of a rural practice undergraduate program, the design and development of the distributed expansion of Medical School, and continues the active practice of medicine. During his first term as Department Chair he led a Faculty initiative on Integrating Study & Service which contributed to the success of the Strategic Teaching Initiative, a substantial, targeted increase in resources for the Faculty of Medicine to help focus its research and educational capacity on the priority health needs of British Columbians. He currently chairs a Task Group of the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC) charged with implementing the policy paper Social Accountability: A Vision for Canadian Medical Schools. At these various levels he is leading the development of five-way partnerships (policy makers/health managers/communities/ professional organizations/academy) to build responsive and responsible academic systems in support of responsive and responsible health care systems. He is currently working in a number of venues. These address issues relevant to social responsibility of the profession and range from local (Departmental pilot initiatives) through regional (BC Academic Health Science Initiative on Towards Unity for Health) through provincial (Steering Committee for the Primary Health Care Transition Fund, BCMA Board of Directors, BC Cancer Agency Primary Care Oncology Network, etc.) and to national (Primary Health Care Transition Fund National Envelope initiatives with AFMC) and international realms (World Federation of Medical Education and Localized Poverty Reduction in Vietnam initiatives). He has worked on the development of primary care electronic networks in the rural undergraduate program at UBC and has been part of an interdisciplinary team looking at community preparedness for information technology and telemedicine. He is married to Erlene; they have three sons, a granddaughter and grandson.
INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL BOARD Jack Boulet Jack Boulet, Ph.D. is the Director of Research and Tracking for the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER®). He received his doctorate in 1996 from the University of Ottawa, specializing in educational measurement.Dr. Boulet has published extensively in the field of medical education, focusing specifically on measurement issues pertaining to performance-based assessments, including objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) and various mannequin-based methodologies. More recently, he has become involved in health workforce research, conducting studies to enumerate, and assess the impact of, physician migration.
William Burdick As FAIMER’s Director of Education, William Burdick, M.D., M.S.Ed., oversees the Foundation’s efforts to create educational resources for international medical educators. Dr. Burdick has been a Co-Director of the FAIMER Institute since its inception in 2001. He also serves as ECFMG’s Assistant Vice President of Assessment Services, a position he has held since 1999. Dr. Burdick is Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine, and has been recognized for teaching excellence with the Lindback Award and the Trustees' Award. A graduate of Oberlin College, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, and Cornell University Weill School of Medicine, Dr. Burdick completed training in Internal Medicine at Boston City Hospital and is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Emergency Medicine.
Zenobia Chan Professor Zenobia Chan has an extensive teaching background, including university teaching -- from undergraduate to Master’s level -- and training workshops. She loves learning from her students’ perspectives and believes that, as a health educator, she should nurture her students’ professional and academic development through mutual commitment and understanding. She encourages her students to be humble, sympathetic, patient and competent in all encounters with their clients. Through her long-term commitment to teaching, she wishes to contribute to the health care system by empowering patients, providing context-based care plans, and launching culturally-sensitive health initiatives. She works to support indigenization and exchange of health care practices, knowledge, and research in response to citizens’ needs, and seeks to nurture biopsychosocial-spiritual well-being in the face of globalization by disseminating relevant research findings and advancing in clinical practice. Professor Chan loves writing for both its therapeutic and communicative uses. She has written for a wide range of academic journals and has contributed book chapters at the international level. She has published about forty papers related to nursing, family studies, counseling, mental health, medical education, social work, qualitative research and poetry. She published a book titled “Silenced Women” by Nova Science Publishers in 2009. She has actively participated in and presented her research at academic conferences. In hopes of influencing health care research trends, she serves as an editorial member of Education for Health and as a reviewer for the American Journal of Health Behavior, the International Journal of Nursing Studies, and the Journal of Nursing Scholarship.
Robbert Duvivier Robbert Duvivier is a 24-year-old student from Maastricht University, The Netherlands. After graduating from secondary school he spent his gap year travelling the globe. Robbert has worked on medical education issues since the onset of his academic life on local, national and international level. Locally: He was involved in the student council at the Faculty of Medicine, Maastricht University and was student board member at the Institute of Medical Education. Furthermore, he co-organised the elective course "International Health and Tropical Medicine" which is taken by 150 second-year students and entirely organised by medical students. Nationally: Robbert served as Vice President of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations The Netherlands (IFMSA-NL) in 2005-2006. Internationally: Recently, he was elected Liaison Officer on Medical Education issues to the executive board of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA). In this capacity he will represent medical students in the executive board of Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) and in the executive council of World Federation of Medical Education (WFME). Before that, he served as Vice President of the European Medical Students' Association (EMSA) in 2006-2007. His professional interests include clinical skills training, the promotion of global equality in medical education and health professional workforce issues. He is currently pursuing a PhD in medical education, alongside the clinical part of his medical degree. He has travelled extensively on five continents and coordinated projects in Kenya and Southern Sudan. He hopes to eventually combine his clinical practice with a career in either public health academia or with an international non-governmental organisation. In his spare time he enjoys long-distance running, photography and spending time with family and friends.
Rita Giacaman Rita Giacaman is a professor of public health at the Institute of Community and Public Health, Birzeit University, West Bank, occupied Palestinian territory. She is a founding member of the Institute, and has worked there for 30 years. During the 1980’s, she participated as a researcher and practitioner in the Palestinian social action movement, which led to the development of the Palestinian primary health care model. During the 1990’s, she also participated in building the Palestinian community based disability rehabilitation network. Since 2000, Rita has been focusing on understanding the impact of chronic war like conditions and excessive exposure to violence on the health and well being of Palestinians, with an emphasis on psychosocial health; and ways in which interventions could generate the needed active and positive resilience and resistance to ongoing war like conditions, especially among youth. She has published articles in scientific journals, chapters in books, and is currently co-editing a volume on Public Health in the Arab world along with colleagues from the Faculty of Health Sciences at the American University of Beirut.
Trevor Gibbs Professor Trevor Gibbs is currently Professor of Primary Care and Medical Education at the Ukraine National Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education. As a General Practitioner and academic for over thirty years, he has extensive experience in the development and delivery of Primary Care and Community-based Education. He has been involved with many of the innovations in Primary Care over these years; instigatory in the creation of the concept of the Practice Nurse in the UK on the early 1980s, leading the development of small practice Fund holding and Practice Management in the early 1990’s, and creating the largest community-based undergraduate medical education programme in the UK at Liverpool in the mid 1990s. He has recently provided policy direction for the proposed new training curriculum for UK General Practice, and the proposals for re-certification and re-accreditation of General Practitioners. As a lead in Vocational Training for General Practice, he was Deputy Dean of Postgraduate General Practice in Liverpool and Director of Community Studies in Liverpool Medical School. His experience in General Practice and his interest in Medical Education have given him the opportunity to develop medical curricular programmes in many parts of the world. He has held Chairs in Family Medicine and Medical Education in South Africa, the Middle East, Ukraine, Japan and Hong Kong. He writes extensively on the subject of Medical Education and retains an Executive position as Educational Consultant to the Association of Medical Education in Europe. His research interests are in International Medical Education, Adolescent Health and the relationship between nutrition, diet and health in developing countries.
Rogayah Ja'afar Rogayah Ja’afar is Professor and Head of the Department of Medical Education at the School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia. She holds a Bachelors degree in Medicine and Surgery (MBBS) from the University of Cario Egypt and a Master of Health Professional Education (MHPEd) from the University of New South Wales, Australia as well as a Post Graduate certificate as a Health Partner Fellow from the University of Illinois Chicago, USA. Rogayah teaches professional communication skills and women's health in both the undergraduate and post graduate programmes as well as coordinates a new Master of Science Programme in Medical Education at her medical school. She also coordinates and runs faculty development programmes yearly since 1986 to prepare and refresh medical teachers to be better prepared for their multifaceted roles as educator,student counsellor, manager and researcher in an academic setting. Her major areas of interest are in curricular and programme development, faculty and leadership development, problem based and community oriented medical education In January of 2003, Dr. Ja’afar was appointed as the first Chair of the Network-TUFH Women and Health Task Force. Her leadership has led the Taskforce through an era of unprecedented growth and prosperity, including the development of the Women's Health Learning Package (WHLP), a set of gender-sensitive educational materials for use in medical and nursing schools. These training modules cover topics that include violence against women, gender and health, and adolescent health and are designed by local health advocates to improve health care workers' ability to understand and address difficult issues affecting women and girls. The WHLP is currently in use in Egypt, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Sudan and Uganda, and is being distributed free of charge to other universities in developing countries both online and on CD-ROM. Rogayah was awarded an honorary membership of the Network: TUFH in November 2003, in recognition for her long and outstanding services, and currently serves on the GHETS Board of Directors. She was unanimously elected as Chairman of the Network:TUFH during the Annual General Meeting of the Network in Vietnam in November 2005, having served as a member of the Network executive committee for two terms from 1996 to 1999.
Hilliard Jason Hilliard Jason, MD, EdD has devoted his career since the late 1950s to finding ways to help enhance the quality and humanize the process of teaching and practice in the health professions. “Hill” pursued medical and educational doctorates at the University of Buffalo plus a residency and fellowship in psychiatry at the University of Rochester and McGill University. He was founding Director of the Office of Medical Education Research and Development at Michigan State University and the Division of Faculty Development at the Association of American Medical Colleges. He is former Editor of the journal, Education for Health: Change in Learning and Practice and is now Clinical Professor, Department of Family Medicine, at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. With his wife, Jane Westberg, PhD, Hill has co-authored 7 academic books and more than 40 widely distributed educational videos. He has hosted or co-hosted more than 60 educational videos. Hill was responsible for one of the pioneering studies of medical problem solving, which culminated in the influential book, Medical Problem Solving: An Analysis of Clinical Reasoning (Elstein, A. S. and others. (1978) Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press) and for the two largest, multi-institutional studies of the instructional process in medicine ever done (the second of which culminated in the book, Teachers and Teaching in U.S. Medical Schools (Jason, H., & Westberg, J. (1982). Norwalk, Connecticut: Appleton-Century-Crofts). Hill has been a consultant to health professions educational programs in 32 countries.
Tadahiko Kozu Tadahiko Kozu, M.D. graduated from the School of Medicine University Tokyo in 1965. He was a Professor of Gastroenterology and GI-Endoscopy at the Institute of Gastroenterology in Tokyo Women’s Medical University until 1995, when he was appointed as the Professor of Medical Education for the newly-established Department of Medical Education in Tokyo Women’s Medical University. He was the first Professor of Medical Education in Japan. In 2003, he semi-retired and became Professor Emeritus of Tokyo Women’s Medical University. Dr. Kozu has engaged himself in the innovation of medical education in Japan since 1990, when Tokyo Women’s Medical University started the new integrated curriculum, with which PBL was implemented for the first time in Japan. He has served as a real advocator of PBL during these 18 years. Dr. Kozu has also been active internationally. He has shared his rich experiences in medical education to 61 colleges of medical, dental, nursing, pharmaceutical, science, in countries such as Japan, USA, UK, Korea, Mainland China, and Taiwan. He is an Education Committee member of the World Gastroenterology Organization (OMGE). Currently, Dr. Kozu is an advisor of Tokyo Women’s Medical University, a councilor of Japanese Medical Education Foundation, a member of Mutual Accreditation Committee of the Japan University Accreditation Association, Committee for University Accreditation of the National Institution for Academic Degrees and University Accreditation, an honorary member of the Japan Society for Medical Education, a trustee of the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society and a chairman of the Committee for Board Certification of JGES, a special member of the Japan Society of Gastroenterology and a deputy chair of the Committee for Postgraduate Education of the JSGE, an Honorary Invited Researcher of the International Research Center for Medical Education at the University of Tokyo, and a trustee of the University of Occupational and Environmental Health.
Theo Lippeveld Theo Lippeveld, MD, MPH is the Vice-president of the International Division at John Snow Inc. (JSI). He is a public health physician with more than twenty years of experience in health policy analysis, health planning, and building integrated health systems in developing countries. His specific area of strength and focus in the last fifteen years has been the design and implementation of national routine health information systems (e.g. Chad, Pakistan, Morocco). Dr. Lippeveld has a medical degree from the University of Louvain (Belgium), a master degree in public health from Harvard University (USA), and a diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene from the Tropical Institute of Antwerp (Belgium). Between 1989 and 1997, he was development advisor at the Harvard Institute for International Development and visiting lecturer at the Harvard School of Public Health (USA).
Martin Lipsky Martin S. Lipsky, M.D., is Regional Dean at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford in Rockford, Illinois.  Dr. Lipsky was previously the founding Chair of the Department of Family Medicine at Northwestern University Medical School and Evanston Northwestern Healthcare.  Dr. Lipsky earned his medical degree at the Medical College of Pennsylvania and completed a family medicine residency at the University of California at Irvine. Dr. Lipsky has published over 100 peer reviewed articles, book chapters and several monographs on Family Medicine and clinically related topics.  His research interests include medical education, health policy, and health disparities particularly in rural settings.  He serves on the editorial boards for Family Practice Recertification, Education for Health, and Disease a Month.  He has also edited six books including a popular family medicine textbook and three books about medicine for the non-professional.