Hub 3 - Health

Introduction

Hub 3 - the CIVIS Hub on Health (HH) - was established in September 2020 and deals with educational programmes (webinars, workshops, summer schools, miniprogrammes, blended intensive programmes, multiple and joint degrees, etc) related to all aspects of health and not only to the medical sciences. The Hub is Coordinated by a Council composed of 26 members (two academics per CIVIS member university, with two students and two stakeholders). In 2021 the Council decided to create 18 teams of up to 5 academics per university to deal in a very concrete and effective way with all activities. Each team focuses on a specific health domain, with the list including a number of inter-related disciplines. The recent inclusion of the University of Lausanne as Co-Leader of Hub 3 alongside Sapienza Università di Roma significantly strengthened our work on disciplines related to social sciences and humanities in all teams. In the second phase of CIVIS (2022-2026), Hub 3 is making a strong effort to develop multiple and joint degrees.

Activities

In the first phase of CIVIS (2019-2022), Hub 3 successfully implemented many activities, including about 30 webinars, 10 workshops, 20 summer schools, and 10 miniprogrammes. The aforementioned structure of a coordinating Council with 18 subject-specific teams means that a total of several hundred academics are involved in building the Hub. This has proved to be a very effective approach to develop educational programmes, but also research activities in different health fields such as neuroscience, biochemistry, psychology and health economics. In the new phase of CIVIS, these teams are strongly encouraged to establish multiple and joint degrees following the CIVIS guidelines under development. With this in mind, an important in-person meeting of the Hub 3 Council took place at the CIVIS days in Tübingen in May 2023.

Leadership

The Co-Chairs of the Health Hub are:

The Co-Coordinators of the Health Hub are:

They hold regular Council and team meetings providing information and encouraging the implementation of educational activities. The teams, which are coordinated by 1-2 facilitators from all CIVIS universities, are also invited to meet separately to discuss in more detail among themselves.

Get involved and learn more

Hub 3, with it's original structure of 18 teams, already involves several hundred academics in its activities. More specifically, Hub's 3 Health teams are working in various domains and scientific fields as follows:

Hub’s 3 Health domains

  1. Aging and geriatric medicine, social gerontology
  2. Anaesthesiology, pain management, and critical care medicine
  3. Biochemistry and genetics, medical biotechnologies, diagnostics, gene therapy and bioinformatics, epigenetics
  4. Diagnostic imaging, biomedical engineering, robotics in medicine, new medical devices and digital health & tracking devices
  5. Mental health, clinical psychology, psychotherapy, psychiatry, addictions, eating disorders, ergonomics, occupational health, inter-cultural health
  6. Cancer medicine, immunology, and immunotherapies
  7. Cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and metabolic diseases, rehabilitation
  8. Chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases
  9. Endocrinology, urology, reproductive and sexual health
  10. Gastroenterology, hepatology, and microbioresearch
  11. Health economics, healthcare management, healthcare policies, health inequalities, public health, including preventative health
  12. Immunity, infectious diseases, microbiolology, global health, environmental health, community health, social and inclusive medicine
  13. Medical humanities and innovative pedagogies, professional development, history of medicine & health, psycho-social studies of medicine & health, ethics and philosophy of health & medicine
  14. Neonatal and pediatric health, perinatal psychology
  15. Neurophysiology, neuroscience, neurodegenerative diseases, neuropsychology and neurorehabilitation
  16. Nursing, integrated and coordinated models of care, physical medicine, rehabilitation, disabilities, motor sciences, anatomy and physiology
  17. Oral health
  18. Pharmacy, pharmacology, nutrition, nanosciences and nanoformulation, social pharmacology

However, all teams are always open to welcoming other academics affiliated to CIVIS member universities who are motivated and interested to contribute to our educational activities.

The two major activities in which Hub 3 members are currently engaged are the creation of Blended Intensive Programmes (BIPs) and the development of joint degrees. The European Union has published an interesting report about the pathway to multiple and joint degrees.