[Education, investigation and action in international health: Unit of International Studies in Public Health, Mexico].

The internationalization of health causes, conditions, and responses require the consolidation of a vigorous academic and pragmatic tradition of international health. The Unit for International Studies in Public Health constitutes an interinstitutional effort for the training of human resources, research, consulting and practice in health needs and actions that go beyond national borders and that affect two or more countries. The main objectives of the Unit are, on the one hand, to develop a conceptual framework and consolidate international health as a field of public health and, on the other, to foster international technical cooperation among the national institutions that conform the Unit and foreign universities, governments of developing and developed countries, and international organizations. The strategies of the Unit are: interinstitutional and intrainstitutional collaboration, consolidation of multidisciplinary teams, integration of research-teaching-service, and external resources fund-raising. The functioning of the Unit is based on an academic program and on an international technical cooperation program.