A picture of me standing alone in front of the Scottish Highlands holding a Scottish flag.

Author: Max Green | Major: Biomedical Engineering | Semester: Summer 2023

Academics

Public health and the practice of medicine is surprisingly dependent on the region it is happening in. As someone who wants to spend the rest of my life working towards improving the medical system in the US as a doctor and policy advocate, I feel that it’s important for me to understand what other systems are like, and what similarities and differences exist between them and the United States system. It is for this reason that I was incredibly excited to go on the UA History of Public Health in the UK study abroad program.

This program focused on exploring those very similarities and differences through both modern day and historical lenses. During the program, we discussed everything from the modern NHS to the groundbreaking discovery of the waterborne nature of cholera. This lines up perfectly with my goal to understand the system of public health and medicine in the UK for the purpose of understanding how the United States can improve.

One key area that caught my attention in all of this was the United Kingdom’s focus on not-for-profit care, even predating the National Health Service most people associate with universal coverage. While there, we learned that even before the NHS, almost every hospital in the UK was already non-profit. When the NHS was founded, instead of being a wild new idea about how care should be delivered, it was more of a realignment of many non-profits into a single universal health system.

The classes for this program were very different than most University of Arkansas classes because they were focused on discussing history and modern medicine while also seeing the places where they were happening. Much of the program, particularly while we were in London, involved walking tours of historical and modern sites of medical significance, which I felt really helped with the immersion. Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t also acknowledge the wonderful faculty mentors involved. They hugely contributed to the learning process, making the entire program a cohesive experience.

Culture

Given the nature of our time in the UK as a public health program, I was on the lookout for cultural differences that affect public health. One of the biggest things I noticed on this front was the significantly lower social stigma associated with smoking cigarettes. Despite more dramatic rules about selling cigarettes (the grocery stores don‘t allow nicotine display cases that are common across America), people seem much more comfortable smoking in public. Additionally, they seem to do it a lot more than in America.

On a happier note, the public transit systems in the two cities we stayed in (Glasgow, Scotland and London, England) were superb. The London tube system especially really makes travel much easier and makes it so not having a car is no real concern. To some extent, a lot of London and Glasgow did just feel like a big city in America with some different accents. I think that that is an important testament to how even across cultural lines people are still often quite similar.

Advice

First things first, if you have any interest in public health, this program is perfect. The experience is eye-opening and difficult to achieve in the United States. Before I experienced this program, I wish I had done just a little more research on how the United States historically approached public health. Given the limited time frame of the program the learning experiences were heavily focused on the system in the United Kingdom, and the comparison points in the United States were mostly left to our existing knowledge. Finally, the first thing I did when I got home was collapse on my bed and take a nice long nap, because with just how much learning was packed into just two weeks, I was exhausted. That said, if I had to decide if it was a good idea to go, I would say yes in a heartbeat.