Students who enroll in SSIM 673-5 in Winter Quarter will automatically be enrolled in SSIM 673-5 in Spring Quarter. Students will earn one credit (.5 in Winter and .5 in Spring) and receive a grade at the end of Spring Quarter. The class meets during the final five weeks of Winter Quarter and the first five weeks of Spring Quarter.

The Medical Technologies in Global Public Health course provides students the unique opportunity to inform the design and launch of medical technologies for developing countries by conducting market research. The students' findings will be shared with the developers of the medical technologies, including Northwestern University and several companies and philanthropists.

Prior market research trips have taken place in India, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi and Zambia, each with a focus on medical technologies such as HIV tests, tuberculosis tests, and neonatal devices for small and sick newborns. This class typically requires a two week market research trip to an African country during Spring Break. Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, a decision will be made in December on whether or not the course will be physically traveling to a country in Africa. The course will still take place even if the decisions is that it is not safe or reasonable to travel. Instead, students will be assigned to an Experiential Learning Project providing opportunity for virtual collaboration with partners across multiple African countries. This is the new normal for global health, at least for now.

Students will spend the second five weeks of Winter Quarter in the classroom learning the science of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and other high-burden diseases; the background on medical technologies under development; and the essentials for conducting medical product market research in these geographies. Through interactive case studies and prominent guest lecturers, students will gain a holistic understanding and a broad overview of global health. During this time, students will also begin working with product developers from countries across Africa to better understand their products, needs and challenges.

Following this initial coursework, students will spend the next five weeks during the Spring Quarter conducting user interviews both virtually and locally to understand how the medical technologies are perceived by key stakeholders in the market, including: end-users at hospitals and clinics, government officials, and NGOs and distributors. These results will then be analyzed to synthesize key findings and provide recommendations to the developers of these medical technologies.

**Admittance to this course is by application only.**
Your accepted application for this class will also ensure that you will be enrolled in SSIM-673-5 in Spring Quarter.

This course may not be dropped once the student has been matched with a project or sponsor.