Global health is the study and practice of improving health and achieving health equity for all people worldwide. Unlike international health, which traditionally focused on health problems in low-income countries, global health recognizes that health challenges cross borders and that the health of every population is interconnected. Pandemics, antimicrobial resistance, climate change, migration, and global supply chains for food and pharmaceuticals mean that health events anywhere can affect health everywhere. For pre-health students, global health offers a lens through which to understand the broader forces shaping health outcomes and a set of career pathways for those drawn to working at the intersection of medicine, public health, and international development.
The Global Burden of Disease
The global burden of disease has shifted dramatically over the past century. Infectious diseases (tuberculosis, malaria, HIV/AIDS, diarrheal diseases, respiratory infections) remain leading causes of death in low-income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Meanwhile, non-communicable diseases (cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease) have become the dominant causes of death globally, accounting for approximately 74 percent of all deaths worldwide. Many low- and middle-income countries now face a “double burden” of disease: they continue to battle infectious diseases while simultaneously experiencing rising rates of chronic conditions driven by urbanization, dietary changes, tobacco use, and physical inactivity.
Maternal and child health remain critical global health priorities. Approximately 287,000 women die each year from complications of pregnancy and childbirth, with 94 percent of these deaths occurring in low-income settings. Approximately 5 million children under age 5 die each year, primarily from preventable and treatable conditions including pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, and neonatal complications. These deaths are concentrated in the world’s poorest communities and represent a stark measure of global health inequity.
Key Global Health Organizations
World Health Organization (WHO): The WHO is the United Nations specialized agency for international health. It sets global health standards, coordinates international health responses, monitors disease outbreaks, and provides technical assistance to countries strengthening their health systems. The WHO’s Global Health Observatory provides free data on health indicators for every country. Understanding the WHO’s structure and role helps you contextualize global health policy and practice.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Global Health Division: The CDC works internationally on disease surveillance, outbreak response, laboratory capacity building, and health systems strengthening. CDC global health programs address HIV/AIDS (through PEPFAR), malaria, tuberculosis, emerging infectious diseases, and pandemic preparedness.
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs): Organizations like Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Partners in Health, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and PATH work directly in communities providing clinical care, building health infrastructure, training local healthcare workers, and advocating for policy changes. Many of these organizations offer opportunities for healthcare professionals at various career stages, from short-term volunteer missions to long-term career positions.
Global Health Ethics
Global health practice raises important ethical questions that every participant must grapple with. Short-term medical missions (“voluntourism”) have been criticized for providing unsustainable care, undermining local health systems, prioritizing the volunteer’s experience over the community’s needs, and sometimes causing harm through untrained interventions. Ethical global health engagement prioritizes sustainability (building local capacity rather than creating dependence on external providers), partnership (working with rather than for communities), humility (recognizing that local practitioners understand their communities better than visiting volunteers), and accountability (measuring impact and adjusting programs based on evidence).
If you participate in a global health experience during your training, seek programs that partner with established local organizations, invest in local workforce development, provide longitudinal engagement rather than one-time visits, and prepare participants with cultural orientation, language training, and clinical supervision. Avoid programs that treat vulnerable communities as learning opportunities for trainees or that provide services that local practitioners could deliver with appropriate support and resources.
Global Health Careers
Careers in global health span clinical practice, research, public health, policy, and administration. Physicians, nurses, PAs, and other clinicians can work with international organizations (WHO, CDC, MSF, military), academic global health programs (many medical schools have global health tracks or departments), NGOs, or government agencies. Non-clinical global health careers include epidemiology, health economics, health policy, program management, health informatics, and advocacy. Many global health professionals combine domestic clinical practice with periodic international work, while others build full-time international careers. Graduate training in public health (MPH), tropical medicine, or health policy provides additional preparation for global health careers.
For students interested in exploring global health during their education, look for global health concentrations within your professional program, international elective rotations, research opportunities with faculty who work internationally, and student organizations focused on global health. Many medical schools, PA programs, and nursing programs offer structured global health tracks that include didactic coursework, language preparation, and supervised international clinical experiences.
Global Health and the MCAT
Global health concepts appear on the MCAT® primarily through the Psych/Soc section (social determinants of health, health disparities across populations, the role of social institutions in health) and through passage-based questions in the Bio/Biochem and Chem/Phys sections that use international health scenarios as context for testing fundamental science concepts. Understanding the global burden of disease, the epidemiological transition, and the social and economic factors that drive health outcomes across populations prepares you for these questions and for the increasingly global perspective that medical education requires. See our sociology study guide and social determinants of health page.
For related topics, see our health equity page, climate and health page, ethics in medicine page, and cross-cutting topics hub.
Pandemic Preparedness: The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated both the importance of global health infrastructure and the devastating consequences of its inadequacy. Pandemic preparedness requires surveillance systems that detect emerging pathogens early, laboratory networks that can rapidly identify and characterize new threats, communication systems that disseminate accurate information to the public and to healthcare providers, healthcare systems with surge capacity to handle sudden increases in patient volume, supply chains that can produce and distribute vaccines, therapeutics, and personal protective equipment at scale, and international cooperation frameworks that enable coordinated response across borders. Future pandemics are not a matter of “if” but “when,” and the healthcare workforce you are joining will be on the front lines of the response. Understanding pandemic preparedness principles now helps you contribute more effectively when the next global health emergency arises.
Antimicrobial Resistance: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the most urgent global health threats. The WHO has called it one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity. When bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites evolve to resist the drugs designed to kill them, infections become harder to treat, medical procedures become riskier, and healthcare costs increase. AMR is driven by overuse and misuse of antimicrobials in human medicine, agriculture, and animal husbandry. Drug-resistant tuberculosis, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), and drug-resistant malaria are already causing significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Addressing AMR requires antimicrobial stewardship (using antibiotics only when necessary and choosing the narrowest effective agent), investment in new antibiotic development, infection prevention and control, and global coordination to reduce unnecessary antimicrobial use across all sectors. See our microbiology study guide for related content on antimicrobial resistance mechanisms.
Global Health Experiences During Training: Many medical schools, PA programs, and nursing programs offer international clinical electives or global health rotations. These experiences can be transformative, exposing you to diseases, healthcare delivery models, and resource constraints that you would not encounter in a domestic clinical setting. However, they require careful preparation and ethical consideration. Before participating in an international rotation, ensure that the program has a genuine partnership with a local institution, that your presence adds value to the host community (not just to your education), that you have appropriate clinical supervision, that you have completed relevant pre-travel health requirements (vaccinations, prophylaxis), and that you have cultural orientation and language preparation appropriate to the setting. Approach international experiences with humility, recognizing that you are a guest in someone else’s community and that your primary obligation is to contribute positively to the care being provided.
References
World Health Organization. “Global Health Observatory.” WHO, 2025. https://www.who.int/data/gho. Accessed March 2026.
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. “Global Burden of Disease.” IHME, 2025. https://www.healthdata.org/research-analysis/gbd. Accessed March 2026.
Koplan, J.P., et al. “Towards a Common Definition of Global Health.” The Lancet, 373(9679), 1993-1995, 2009.