In the past decade, more students than ever entered medical school with the desire, if not the expectation, of participating in meaningful global health experiences. Schools must now weigh benefits to students of global experiences against burdens of students' learning experiences on institutions and individuals with whom schools partner. Most often, global health training is done as offsite immersion rotations in research or clinical settings. This article explores ethical dimensions of expanding global health offerings while respecting local partners' goals by focusing on the experience of the University of Pennsylvania's global health training programs. Global Health on the Rise Awareness of global health inequality as a social concern and global health as an emerging academic discipline is growing. This growth is perhaps fostered by more widespread appreciation that health in one region often directly and rapidly influences health in another. 1 We see this increased interconnectivity via traveling, sharing food sources that carry infectious agents, and learning how infectious and noncommunicable disease incidence is influenced by social determinants or by climate or geopolitical conditions. 2,3 Awareness of global health is also bolstered by the increasing prevalence and ease of commercial and social media. 4,5 Although attention is often focused on catastrophic global health events, such events increase awareness of disparities in global disease burden and in access to basic disease prevention strategies and health care.
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