Q&A: Professor Karen Oates on the Master of Science in Global Health

How does WPI’s Master of Science in Global Health differ from existing global health programs?     

The WPI program is unique because of the university’s strengths in science and technology and its established global engagement. It utilizes new technologies in modeling, machine learning, and AI to work with communities across the globe to solve problems. At the same time, WPI’s global health program is designed to prepare students, through research and practice, to bring good health to people wherever they live. The program balances core fundamental concepts in global health, training in methods with a technical specialization, and a graduate project or practicum.

The MS in Global Health has four concentrations: Global Health Management and Assessment, Data and Modeling for Global Health, Mobile Applications for Global Health, and Engineering Solutions for Global Health. WPI’s excellence in global project-based experiential education—integrating science, technology, and society through immersive real-world research—brings a distinctive element to this program that other comparable programs lack. A BS/MS degree is currently being designed for students this year interested in using their WPI STEM background to move seamlessly into a Global Health master’s degree.

How can technology improve global health?

We have plenty of examples of faculty research focused on improving health across the globe. Researchers are using machine learning to better analyze a patient’s disease progression and model outbreaks. A WPI team is developing a smartphone app that will use photos, heat images, and algorithms to detect infections in wounds when patients are at home. Faculty researchers are leading a team to develop a wearable sensor to measure oxygen levels in premature infants—in a way that is more accurate and accounts for variations in pigmented skin tones—allowing for infants to leave the hospital sooner and be monitored at home.

All these technologies are being developed to use “in the field” and, when appropriate, by local community members. Global health technologies are also used for rural health education through interactive games, interactive media design, and applied smartphone applications.

New technologies are impacting the delivery of health care globally, including trends such as remote telemedicine and virtual hospitals, personalized healthcare solutions and precision medicine, cloud-based health systems and data management, an emphasis on preventive care and well-being, retail healthcare offered beyond the traditional clinic or hospital, and rising AI adoption for administrative duties and medical treatments. But technologies are only as good as the human systems with which they interact. Graduates in global health also need to be versed in the policies, regulations, and economic pressures that shape health care access globally, as well as having some knowledge of the cultural, political, and institutional variation that shapes unequal health access worldwide. WPI is perfectly poised for this mission.

You talk about how solutions to global health issues sit at the intersection of technology, science, and humanity. How does WPI get the humanity part—and ethics—into the program?

We have a core requirement for all students that includes Perspectives on Global Health and Collaborations for a Better World Seminar Series, along with a required Graduate Qualifying Project. All of these together—in addition to specific courses—include ethics and social determinants of health, build strong and lasting knowledge of people, place, and culture. In addition, we expect the program to be composed of individuals from around the world who want to study with our experienced faculty.

How will students in the program get practical training in real-world problems and how will they work with global communities on these problems?

All students are required to have global internships, called Graduate Qualifying Projects, and may focus on applied projects in hospitals, health management agencies, health clinics, nonprofit settings, or within govern-mental or non-governmental health organizations. The goal is to use knowledge for the good of society. The internship is a key addition to WPI’s portfolio of interdisciplinary global graduate programs that embed advanced technical training in STEM disciplines with interdisciplinary social science, experiential learning, and a project-based practicum at one of our Global Project Centers.

Possibilities for internship sites for our students include the University of Johannesburg, South Africa; American University of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia; University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana; and University of Puerto Rico–Medical Sciences Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico; along with partners such as UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester Department of Health, and our own WPI research laboratories, to name a few.

For what type of career opportunities will graduates of this program be well-qualified? 

WPI offers two qualities that are unmatched by other programs in global health: technical training in specific areas of global health technology, including epidemiology and bioinformatics, biomedical engineering, computer science, data science, management, and mobile health; and a network of global project centers and international partnerships where students can conduct hands-on, real-world internships and research projects.

WPI commissioned a market research report in January 2019 (updating it in 2023), which analyzed industry needs, competition, and opportunities in this specific field. The need for healthcare specialists in every field is growing, and the demand for global health experts with defined specializations has also grown, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic has proven how vulnerable our global community is. Global health, with its technical component, is a high-growth field with a strong job market and career opportunities. The demand for global health specialists has increased steadily, especially for graduates with the kinds of technical skills that WPI offers in data science, biomedical engineering, health system management, and mobile health and gaming.