Collaborative teaching and learning: a model for building capacity and partnerships to address NTDs.

Education, training, and a broad understanding of the social, political, economic, and environmental factors underlying poor health and health disparities are key elements in dealing with neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). We have now completed 3 years of the Harvard-Brazil Collaborative Public Health Field Course, and we believe this model is effective in educating students and in building networks for future research, education, and policy. We developed an innovative course curriculum that is multidisciplinary and multi-institutional and aims to prepare students, faculty, and researchers to find new approaches to reducing the burden of NTDs. Four of the five disease examples covered in the course are NTDs: dengue, leishmaniasis, leptospirosis, and schistosomiasis (the fifth is HIV/AIDS).