Minor in

Global Health Technologies

About the Minor

The Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies collaborates with multiple departments to offer students a minor in Global Health Technologies (GLHT). The minor is open to Rice undergraduate students from all disciplines and requires completion of seven courses, including five core courses and two electives. The final course required of students is a capstone course, Global Health Design Challenges, in which multidisciplinary teams of undergraduate students work together to design and implement solutions to existing global health challenges in low-resource settings. Students benefit from receiving guidance and mentorship from Rice faculty and graduate students as well as from the Texas Medical Center, partner organizations in developing countries, and clinicians to design low-cost, effective health technologies.

Students begin the minor by taking GLHT 201: Introduction to Global Health, which provides an overview of scientific, economic, and policy issues associated with advances in global health technologies, followed by an introductory design course, GLHT 360: Appropriate Design for Global Health. The subsequent core course is selected by the student from a collection of approved courses. The final two courses include GLHT 451 and GLHT 452, Global Health Challenges I and II respectively, which are taken in a two-semester sequence. Elective courses include a range of subjects. Courses such as Immunology, Health Economics, Medical Chemistry, or Health Policy, provide students experience in engineering and social sciences as applied to international health challenges. ​

For more information, please contact Michelle Nodskov, (Michelle.Nodskov@rice.edu) advisor for the Global Health Technologies Minor.​ ​

Requirements for minoring in GLHT

Students must complete five core courses. In addition to the core course sequence, students must complete six (6) credit hours in elective courses, three (3) in science/engineering and three (3) in humanities/social science.

CORE COURSE SEQUENCE 

  • GLHT 201 Introduction to Global Health 
  • GLHT 360 Appropriate Design for Global Health 
  • One of the following:
    • ANTH 381 Medical Anthropology 
    • GLHT 314 Sustainable Water Purification for the Developing World
    • GLHT 392 Needs Finding and Development in Bioengineering
    • GLHT 464 Social Entrepreneurship
    • PSYC 370 Introduction to Human Factors & Ergonomics
    • SOCI 345 Medical Sociology
    • SOCI 381 Research Methods 
    • GLHT 451 & GLHT 452 Global Health Design Challenges I and II 

All core courses will be offered each year: GLHT 201, PSYC 370, SOCI 381, ANTH 381, GLHT 392 and GLHT 451 in the fall and GLHT 360, SOCI 345, GLHT 314, GLHT 464 and GLHT 452 in the spring.​

The sequence indicated is the required sequence, as prerequisites do apply. Prior to enrollment in the capstone course GLHT 451/452, students must successfully complete all other GLHT minor core course requirements, although electives may be taken concurrently. There is no requirement to initiate the GLHT minor in the freshman year. It can be initiated as late as the junior year (beginning of the fifth semester). It will be possible for students to receive credit for GLHT minor courses that also fulfill a requirement within their major.

Science / Engineering Elective Courses

(3hrs is required from the following list)

  • BIOC 318 Lab Module in Microbiology (1 credit course)
  • BIOC 331: Biology of Infectious Disease
  • BIOC 372: Immunology
  • BIOC 424: Microbiology & Biotechnology
  • BIOC 447: Experimental Biology & the Future of Medicine
  • BIOC 450: Viruses & Infectious Diseases
  • BIOC 460: Cancer Biology
  • CEVE 302: Sustainable Design
  • CEVE 314/GLHT 314/BIOE 365: Sustainable Water Purification for the Developing World
  • CHEM 542: Medicinal Chemistry I
  • ELEC 446: Mobile Device Applications Project (*if pursuing a GLHT project)
  • KINE 319: Statistics for Health Professionals
  • STAT 280: Elementary Applied Statistics
  • STAT 305: Intro to Statistics for Biosciences
  • GLHT 400: Global Health Technology Independent Study (1-3 credit course)
  • GLHT 401: GLHT Research Reporting (1 credit course)
  • GLHT 448: Technology Commercialization in Developing Countries for Engineering
  • GLHT 449/BIOE 449: Troubleshooting Workshop for Clinically Relevant Biomedical Equipment
  • GLHT 510 Seminar in Tropical Medicine (1 credit course)

*Note: Independent studies in other majors can be counted toward your elective requirements, but topic must be related to global health and approved in advance by your minor advisor.

Humanities / Social Science Elective Courses

(3hrs is required from the following list)

  • ANTH 343: New Religious Movements in Africa
  • ANTH 366: Science, Local and Global
  • ANTH 381: Medical Anthropology
  • ANTH 443: Anthropology of Race, Ethnicity and Health
  • ANTH 446: Advanced Topics in Biomedical Anthropology
  • BUSI 464/GLHT 464: Social Entrepreneurship
  • ECON 450: Economic Development: Intro
  • ECON 460: International Development  
  • ECON 481: Health Economics
  • ENGL 272: Literature and Medicine
  • ENGL 386: Medical Media Arts Lab
  • ENST 313: Sustainable Design
  • ENST 315: Environmental Health
  • FSEM 155:The Invention of Africa
  • HEAL 222: Principles of Public & Community Health
  • HEAL 313: Foundations of Health Promotion
  • HEAL 350: Understanding Cancer
  • HEAL 375: The Built Environment and Public Health
  • HEAL 380: Disparities in Health in America
  • HEAL 407: Epidemiology
  • HEAL 422: Theory & Models of Health Behavior
  • HEAL 460: Planning & Evaluation of Health Promotion & Education
  • HEAL 498:  Special Topics in Health Sciences
  • HIST 222: History of Early Africa
  • HIST 223: History of Modern Africa
  • ​HIST 312:  Environment, Disease, Medicine & Public Health in Latin America 
  • PHIL 354: Philosophy of Medicine
  • PHIL 266: Medical Ethics 
  • PSYC 345: Health Psychology
  • PSYC 370: Introduction to Human Factors and Ergonomics
  • PSYC 409: Methods in Human-Computer Interaction
  • PSYC 480: Advanced Topics *note: topic must be related to global health and approved in advance by your minor advisor
  • RELI 424: Religion and Politics in Africa
  • SOCI 313: Demography
  • SOCI 345: Medical Sociology
  • SOCI 371: Poverty, Justice & Human Capabilities
  • SOCI 381: Research Methods
  • SOCI 406: Basic Demographic Techniques
  • SOCI 453: Race, Migration, and Health
  • SOCI 465: Gender & Health