ABSTRACT
Global health is experiencing a moment of unprecedented attention and expansion. Yet, despite its increasing importance, global health has developed in the absence of an academic tradition that can guide its efforts to generate knowledge and lead its practical applications. The purpose of this chapter is to present some ideas that may help build such a tradition on the basis of three elements (Frenk 1993): (1) a conceptual base, which serves to establish the limits of the specific areas for research, education, and action in global health; (2) a base for the production and reproduction of knowledge, which involves the creation of a critical mass of researchers, as well as academic initiatives, programmes, and institutions responsible for the generation of a body of specific knowledge and the construction of an intellectual field through the collaboration of several disciplines; and (3) a base for the utilisation of knowledge, which would translate evidence into technological developments, public policies, and global solidarity. The efforts to create an academic field for global health should respond to the interests of all countries, thus avoiding interpretations associated with a specific group of nations.
