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UC Launches Institute to Address Global Health's $75 Billion Impact on California

Global Health represents more than a $75 billion impact on the California economy, according to a report by the newly formed University of California Global Health Institute. The report was released November 9 during a conference on the importance of global health to California. That impact includes an estimated $49.8 billion of revenue that is generated annually by California companies addressing global health needs, and an additional $8 billion in tax revenue for the state, or roughly 7% of total state taxes.

The study, which was conducted by UC Riverside researchers, also found that the global health sector supports 350,000 high-quality jobs in California and provides $19.7 billion in wages and salaries, generating two dollars of business activity for every dollar invested by the state into global health.

“The impact of the global health sector ranks alongside the hospitality industry in scale and outweighs such prominent sectors as agriculture and telecommunications for the state,” said John D. Stobo, M.D., UC senior vice president for Health Sciences and Services. “In that context, there is no better time to launch an integrated approach such as the UC Global Health Institute to bring UC expertise in healthcare, clean water and engineering to address global health issues.”

The conference and report marked the official launch of the UC Global Health Institute, which aims to galvanize and harness the educational, research and health care expertise of hundreds of UC faculty across the 10-campus system to address the increasingly complex global health problems and needs of the world’s most vulnerable populations.

Global health has been named among the top five priorities of the National Institutes of Health and has received a White House commitment of $63 billion over the next six years. It is also an increasingly popular focus for students in the UC system in fields ranging from public health and medicine to engineering and environmental sciences. Student enrollment in global health education programs has doubled nationwide in the past three years alone.

The Institute will be jointly led by Haile Debas, M.D., executive director of UCSF Global Health Sciences and former UCSF Chancellor, and by Tom Coates, Ph.D., the Michael and Sue Steinberg Professor of Global AIDS Research at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine.

The Institute is launching with three multi-campus, multi-disciplinary Centers of Expertise to lead UC-wide education programs, develop research projects and form partnerships for implementing programs and interventions:

The Institute will offer a variety of education programs, beginning with a one-year master’s degree that is expected to enroll students in fall 2011. Eventually, it also will offer two-year masters and PhD programs, granted by the UC campus on which the students conduct their work. The centers of expertise will lead the development of these programs and design field projects for students at partnership sites throughout the world.

UCSF Global Health Sciences is administering a two-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to plan the Institute. The Institute is in the process of establishing a steering committee with representation from all 10 campuses. The Institute will be self-supporting and will depend on gifts, grants and revenue from enrollment fees. Development efforts are currently underway to obtain additional start-up funds for the Institute and its centers of expertise.