From 2009 to 2019, the Center for International Health, in cooperation with the Institute and Outpatient Clinic for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine has organized over 20 summer schools and workshops for international health professionals in Munich and different countries of Latin America. These hands-on programs involved identifying real occupational and public health problems in low- and middle-income countries and facilitated the development of research projects as well as practical solutions that are ready to be implemented.
It all started in 2009 with the first summer school in Munich, which aimed to train health care specialists from lower-income countries who are currently working or training in the field of occupational medicine. The central idea was to teach professionals from all over the world the most important aspects of occupational medicine. In order to ensure that the activities of the CIHLMU do not end with the identification and research of OSH problems, but actively contribute to improvement, the summer schools were expanded in 2016 to include the aspect of "teaching interventions". From this moment, the overall aim of the annual summer school was to train physicians and other health specialists of low and middle income countries to develop teaching intervention for health or safety related problems. Therefore different modern teaching methods were experienced and trained initiating an active participatory learning process. Each participant was working work on his/her own teaching project in order to implement it directly after the course.
The summer schools and workshops in Latin America have been successfully conducted since 2010. These training courses were aimed at professionals in various developing and emerging countries where occupational safety and health have played a subordinate role to date. Experts in the field of OSH from over 15 countries participated and deepened their knowledge in occupational safety and health beyond the borders of Latin America. Furthermore, they got to know the research methods and the planning of an epidemiological project in occupational safety in practice. After completion of the course, the participants are expected to disseminate what they have learned in their respective countries and thus act as multipliers.
A more detailed insight is provided by publications on the summer schools and on individual projects developed by the participants in these courses.