It is clear from these readings that a broader multi-level systems approach must be taken to addressing global health problems. The way in which we examine and implement global health interventions should reflect and involve the complex structures of the societies that they involve. It is also important in these interventions to use forward-thinking, longitudinal models, which will take into account the future of a people even after such an intervention comes to a close.

Community-focused approaches and multi-level approaches seem to be diametrically opposed ways of implementing global health interventions, because when one thinks of a community, ideas are conjured up of people working together, but on only one level, which is the community. In reality though, communities are complex social structures, which can be broken down into multiple levels, such as: councils, schools, families, and individuals, and various inter-connected networks. Communities are not necessarily homogenous either. For example, the population of Cornell University is incredibly diverse. It is composed of faculty, staff, and students, from all different backgrounds, and is yet a community. To assume that one individual is the precedent for an entire community or that people behave the same when extracted from their community framework is to ignore the complexities and intricacies of what it means to be a part of a community. One must also not assume the simplicity of any project involving global health in communities, because in each society there exists a complex historical context, in addition to environmental intricacies, which may influence and alter project ideas before they are implemented. Even at the community-level, diverse knowledge, values, beliefs, and interests all combine in a community to influence the outcome of interventions. Granting the complexity inside of communities, it can be assumed that variation and complexities also arise outside of this structure, growing with complexity from community, to region, to nation, to continent until reaching a global scale.

How do we take into account the complexity of social structures beyond the immediate community when implementing global health interventions? Can implementers assume anything about putting interventions into effect? Does added complexity of interventions ever injure a community? Are some interventions more appropriately implemented individually? Should global health strategies vary depending on if a society or community is more individual-focused (like the U.S.) or more community-focused (like China)?