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Global Health General Information
This page is designed to answer some common questions about the resources available to UTSW students interested in International Health.
General Links and Information
- AMSA International Health - “ Our mission as is to educate, empower and promote action on global health issues.”
- Global Health Education Consortium - “ GHEC is a consortium of faculty and health care educators dedicated to international health education in U.S. and Canadian medical schools and residency programs. Founded in 1991 as IHMEC, it is GHEC's mission to foster international health medical education in four program areas - curriculum, clinical training, career development, and international education policy. GHEC is a consortium of faculty and health care educators dedicated to international health education in U.S. and Canadian medical schools and residency programs. Founded in 1991 as IHMEC, it is GHEC's mission to foster international health medical education in four program areas - curriculum, clinical training, career development, and international education policy. “
- GHEC’s list of online resources - “ Annotated List of International Health-related Websites”
- GHEC’s Global Health Bibliography - “ With free electronic bibliographic searches readily available, why develop a bibliography? As we all know, electronic searches are very useful but they are not selective and may result in many 100s of citations of marginal or no value. By comparison, the GHEC bibliography is selective, with a limited number of high quality citations in each topic category. It is designed for use at the introductory level and is not meant for the advanced student. “
Opportunities
- Traveling abroad for IH - Why go?
- MS1 and MS2
- Join the International Medicine Interest Group , AMSA , or Medical Students for Human Rights . These are not the only organizations dealing with International Health, however.
- Take the International Medicine elective
- Use your free summer before MS1 or between MS1 and MS2 to volunteer. Please note that you will not be covered by UTSW malpractice insurance in these instances. This may or may not be an issue, depending on the program. Find out beforehand!
- AMSA has a wonderful International Health Opportunities Directory geared towards both premed and med students. Links to lists of links!
- Plan your own trip - identify a need, contact a sponsoring organization, and buy a ticket. Sometimes the best way to achieve your goal is to get out there and do it.
Get involved!
- MS3s - Get back to work! In your spare time, begin applying to the away rotations sponsored by other medical institutions available for MS4s.
- MS4s - Four months of the fourth year of medical school are available for electives, use them to travel! Be aware that you will most likely be doing it on your own dime. The AMSA links above list programs and grants that help out in this department. You must apply to get them! Unlike MS1s and MS2s, UTSW provides malpractice insurance for approved electives.
- Sign up for the UTSW senior electives. Like all rotations, these are found on the MS4 web curriculum site .
- Cameroon in the Medicine Dept (Roger Bedimo, MD)
- Bangalore India in the Peds (Angela Mihalic, MD) and Surgery Depts (Rebekah Naylor, MD)
- Locate an away rotation sponsored by another medical institution. These can be taken for credit if approved by the chair of the relevant medical school department and then by an associate dean for student affairs. Also, funding is up to the student. Electives not taken for credit are done without sanction by UTSW and do not include any medical malpractice insurance. Again, this may or may not be a problem depending on the program.
- Get started early! Some programs are competitive and have early application dates.
- Opportunities
- AMSA’s list of International Health Opportunities - Choose “Opportunity Type: Coursework” and “Eligibility : Medical Student”
- Columbia CoP&S has an incredible online database of opportunities available to their students. It is searchable and includes some vignettes on the experience of the students who have participated. This is a great way to identify the foreign institutions that operate clinical rotations for US medical students.
Steps to approval
- Any away rotation taken for credit must be approved first by the corresponding UTSW department head and then by the Associate Dean for Student Affairs. For example, an away rotation involving Internal Medicine taken this year will require the signatures of Dr. Raja (Department Head) and Dr. Parker (Assoc. Dean of Students). This is a single form and can be found here.
- An evaluation form is also required. This is to be taken with the student on the rotation and filled out by the rotation director. It is a Pass/Fail situation and needs to be given to the Registrar’s office upon return to get credit for the rotation. This form can be found here.
Consider further education in International Health. Those who wish to make it a lifelong career can choose to pursue a Master of Public Health.
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