Global Health Training During Residency: The Weill Cornell Tanzania Experience

Abstract

Participants of the WCMC global health elective report positive experiences from our multidimensional global health collaboration.

Evaluation of the UCLA Department of Medicine Malawi Global Health Clinical Elective: Lessons from the First Five Years

“…This finding also highlights that reasons for participation in a specific global health elective will be driven by geographic epidemiology, and electives will draw trainees desiring a particular set of experiences suited to the environment. Findings from our study in regards to the benefits of a global health elective were similar to those in previous publications, including improvement in clinical diagnostic skills, 2,3 a greater appreciation for the physical examination as a critical diagnostic tool, 1,5,6 reduction in use of laboratory and/or radiologic tests, 5 and increased knowledge of HIV and other tropical diseases. 2,3,5 These studies, including our own, are based on participant self-report and objective measurements of elective benefits are lacking.…”

“…Findings from our study in regards to the benefits of a global health elective were similar to those in previous publications, including improvement in clinical diagnostic skills, 2,3 a greater appreciation for the physical examination as a critical diagnostic tool, 1,5,6 reduction in use of laboratory and/or radiologic tests, 5 and increased knowledge of HIV and other tropical diseases. 2,3,5 These studies, including our own, are based on participant self-report and objective measurements of elective benefits are lacking. As medical schools and postgraduate programs expand formalized global health opportunities, standardized methods to objectively measure benefits and thus offer the ability to compare experiences across sites and among different residency programs will be helpful to determine best practices for these electives.…”

“…Previous studies have shown the primary reasons for postgraduates to participate in global health programs are a desire to serve underprivileged populations 5 and to obtain a crosscultural experience. 1 Our survey revealed similar reasons for participation in the Malawi elective, including a desire to learn about healthcare in a resource-poor setting and to "Greatest thing I did in residency (possibly in my life)" "My favorite rotation in residency.…”

“…Previous studies of postgraduate global health electives have explored why participants seek out these experiences, their influence on selection of residency programs, how electives change perspectives on healthcare delivery, and how they influence the types of medical practices participants pursue afterwards. [1][2][3][4][5][6] Despite previous research, gaps remain in our knowledge of how to best implement global health electives, how these experiences contribute to postgraduate medical education, and the extent to which they alter elements of future medical practice and/or career trajectory. We sought to add to the body of literature on postgraduate clinical global health work through a program evaluation of a new University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Department of Medicine elective in Malawi, Africa.…”

The Role of Graduate Medical Education in Global Health: Proceedings From the 2013 Academic Emergency Medicine Consensus Conference

“…Physicians who participate must rely more on patient history and physical examination findings than on diagnostic testing when caring for patients . They must strengthen clinical skills and reduce dependence on both laboratory and other diagnostic tests . As a result, physician trainees learn novel approaches to common problems; this may have long‐term effects on health care systems (particularly in resource‐limited settings).…”