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The Advisory Committee of the Transatlantic Health Science
Consortium met for the first time in San Juan, Puerto Rico
in January, 1999. The purpose
of the first meeting was to set the agenda for the Consortium
as it pertained to developing a program of international exchange
of students and faculty.
The specific problem to be addressed by the Consortium is that
there are virtually no educational experiences that train
biomedical
science/clinical laboratory scientists for the workforce of
the future that will be transnational in nature. The passage
of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the
policies of the European Union (EU) are prescient of the transnational
nature of business and commerce and, hence, the workforce itself.
Knowledge and work are no longer reserved within national
boundaries.
Health issues are international in nature and will
only increase
as health care problems become more universal in scope and
impact local, regional and national economies. A current example
of
this is the AIDS world-wide pandemic.
American health science education has suffered from isolation.
European health science practitioners have had limited opportunities
to learn about the unique American experience. Since knowledge
is universal and learning does not recognize international
boundaries, students as well as faculty can gain from international
exchanges.
There has been very limited or no opportunities
in the health sciences to engage in exchanges because of the
very structured nature of the academic curricula with ultimate
control exerted by the government ministries; academic accrediting
agencies; and licensure boards. Because of these conditions,
very few educators have tried to establish such linkages in
academic health programs.
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