Skip navigation

Medical Students

Meaningful participation in real life surgical situations is often the inspiration for a medical student to elect to pursue a career in a surgical specialty. We aim to provide information relevant to medical students interested in participation in both domestic and international surgical volunteerism opportunities via this resource center.

 

Please feel free to provide any suggestions you may have on appropriate volunteerism resources for medical students via the feedback form found in the "Contact Us" section.

 

Please note that the following links are provided as a courtesy to those with an interest in humanitarian outreach.  Unless otherwise indicated, the American College of Surgeons is not affiliated with these organizations, and not responsible for the content of their websites.

 

General Resources

 

Global Health Education Consortium (GHEC)

A non-profit organization of health professionals, educators and institutions dedicated to global health education. Through its focus on education, GHEC provides dedicated global health leadership to educate, train and mentor health care students, faculty, professionals and practitioners to address global health challenges.

 

Mission Finder, Missions for Medical Students

Provides information on short-term medical mission trips for students with information available on elective rotations, specialty medical training, and non-medical trips.

 

AMSA Global Health Scholars Program Website

2008-2009 progam focuses on Humanitarian Assistance and Displaced Populations.

This site includes a forum for discussion and recommended reading on the topic.

 

Educational Resources

 

Child Family Health International

A global family of committed professionals and students who work at the grassroots level to promote the health of the world community. Since, 1992 CFHI has run international health, service-learning electives for over 5,000 pre-medical, medical, and other students of the health profession. Students travel to Bolivia, Ecuador, India, Mexico, and South Africa to immerse themselves in new cultural contexts and to learn about the way healthcare is practiced and experienced worldwide.

 

Residency Programs

 

Brown Medical School Department of Surgery

The goal of the Brown Medical School Department of Surgery is to foster an environment for the optimal education of residents and medical students and to prepare them to assume their roles in scientific and medical communities. The Department offers the Africa/Tenwek Hospital surgical elective to one or two third-year residents annually.  More information about the elective is available here or by contacting Mrs. Pamela Richardson in the Surgical Education Office at (401) 444-5180.  The article "An International Volunteer Program for General Surgery Residents at Brown Medical School: The Tenwek Hospital Africa Experience" discusses the program in detail.

 

Hubert-Yeargan Center for Global Health at Duke University Medical Center

Participants in the Global Health Residency Program will learn firsthand how to effect systemic change for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people through comprehensive advanced training, education, and fieldwork in a resource-poor setting. The 32-credit curriculum includes five core courses, a field experience to apply learned research methods, and a research-based scholarly thesis. The program includes one to two rotations totaling nine-months in a resource-poor setting. During the field experience, trainees will have opportunity to apply newly acquired skills in both a clinical and research capacity while developing leadership skills in community coalition building, program development, and cultural competency.  For more information, contact Cecelia Pezdek at 919-668-5976 or cecelia.pezdek@duke.edu.

 

Global Health Institutes and Departments

 

Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School
The Department of Global Health and Social Medicine is an interdisciplinary basic science department at Harvard Medical School. Its faculty of social scientists and physicians teaches and conducts research in the social sciences and humanities applied to health and medicine. The program and its partners have established the Global Health Delivery program to more effectively transfer the great array of services, knowledge, and other resources for prevention and treatment of disease, with particular emphasis on those living in resource-poor settings. Collaborations among physicians and social scientists worldwide lead to cross-cultural research and interventions that promote better health both in the United States and abroad.

 

Johns Hopkins University Center for Global Health

The mission of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Global Health is to facilitate and focus the extensive expertise and resources of the Johns Hopkins institutions together with global collaborators to effectively address and ameliorate the world's most pressing health issues. Founded in May of 2006 to lead the University in developing solutions to these health challenges, the Center pulls together Hopkins' extensive knowledge base to develop sustainable solutions that transcend the borders preventing good health throughout the world — borders between disciplines, languages, countries, governments, funding streams, drug availability, education, health care, and more.  

 

Oregon Health and Science University Global Health Center

The Global Health Center facilitates OHSU collaboration with the global health community to promote quality and equity in healthcare worldwide. Through the Global Health Center, OHSU networks with domestic and international communities and is developing programs for students, faculty, staff and partners that will promote global health awareness, research, education and advocacy.

 

University of California, San Francisco Global Health Sciences

UCSF Global Health Sciences (GHS) is dedicated to improving health and reducing the burden of disease in the world's most vulnerable populations. It integrates UCSF expertise in all of the health, social, and biological sciences, and focuses that expertise on pressing issues in global health. GHS works with partners in countries throughout the world to achieve these aims.  Established in 2003 to create a vision and provide institutional leadership for global health at UCSF, its creation underscores UCSF's commitment to global health and to the care of vulnerable populations at home and throughout the world.

 

Center for Global Health at the University of Michigan

The Center for Global Health builds on the University of Michigan's legacy of tackling critical health issues through research and action by generating novel approaches and partnerships that improve health and redress pressing health inequalities. Through its research, training, and service activities the Center is centrally concerned with work that aims to promote global health equity.  The Center offers a Certificate in Global Health, which entails a minimum of 11 credits of coursework focusing on public health issues resulting from the globalization of the world's economies, cultures, production systems, transnational policies, and increasingly shared environments.

 

University of Utah Global Health Alliance

The University of Utah Global Health Alliance (UUGHA) is a network of faculty, students and staff that provides medical humanitarian education and outreach for sustainable health care in targeted countries. These programs underscore principles of training, teaching and support models that have proven to be the most effective approach to international help. Since 2003, over 300 people from the University of Utah School of Medicine and Health Sciences have participated in medical exchanges. The goal is to engage local hospitals, universities and communities as collaborators to identify priority needs, local resources and applicable research; then, determine a course of action.

 

University of Washington Department of Global Health

The Mission of the University of Washington's Department of Global Health is to close the gap between the world's 1 billion people who experience relatively good health and the 5 billion who experience much poorer quality of health, accomplishing this through a collaboration among the University's 17 schools and colleges, other Seattle-based institutions, and partners in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.  The goal of the Department is to address the causes of, and help provide solutions for, disparities in health around the globe, and to enable international partners to achieve sustainable and independent control of their global health programs.

 

Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health
The mission of the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health is to implement sustainable, scalable health and development programs in resource-limited settings through an innovative, multidisciplinary approach rooted on strong academic research and training, and pragmatic community partnerships. The program's work includes facilitating international contacts for program development and training, standardizing and implementing overseas administrative, clinical, and scientific approaches to global health; fostering partnerships with institutions in the United States and abroad that share the goals of the VIGH and wish to collaborate with Vanderbilt faculty, staff, and/or students, and cultivating a close working relationship with Meharry Medical College that has synergistic traditions of overseas partnerships, especially in Africa.

 

Global Health Initiatives at the Yale School of Public Health

The fundamental goal of Global Health Initiatives at Yale School of Public Health is to strengthen the capacity of countries and communities to ensure equity in health for all of their citizens. This is accomplished with a strong commitment to collaborative and participatory approaches, and with particular attention toward health problems that disproportionately affect higher-risk, resource-limited populations.  Global Health Initiatives at YSPH seeks to contribute to an inclusive and collaborative global community of researchers and practitioners committed to improving health, to contribute to a strong evidence base for improving health outcomes globally, and to develop, implement and evaluate initiatives that are linked to sustained benefits for affected populations

 

 

Fellowships and Scholars Programs

 

Paul Farmer Global Surgery Fellowship

Applications are now being accepted for the Paul Farmer Global Surgery Fellowship, a one-year program designed to study the role of surgical care in population-based health care in resource-poor settings.  The program is open to surgeons who have completed residency or surgical residents who are taking a scheduled break in residency to conduct research.  Upon completion of the Fellowship, participants will receive a Master's Degree in Public Health through the Summer Program in Clinical Effectiveness at the Harvard School of Public Health.  To request requirements, application materials, or additional information, please contact Kristen Hoppe by December 15, 2009.

 

Yale / Johnson and Johnson Physician Scholars in International Health Program

Annually selects up to 15 physician-in-training scholars from institutions outside of Yale during their residency for 4-8 week rotations in overseas sites.

 

Online Courses and Resources

 

Global Health Education Consortium: Library of Resources

GHEC provides articles and presentations for students and faculty on global health and education.

 

Medical Peace Work

Medical Peace Work has created an online course to offer information to health professionals on how they can become engaged in peace work through the practice of medicine. Medical Peace Work is a transnational partnership of health professionals coordinated by the Centre for International Health at the University of Tromsø in Norway.

 

Unite for Sight Global Health University

Unite For Sight's Global Health University (GHU) is designed to develop and nurture the next generation of global health leaders. GHU helps to effect widespread innovative change in global health through comprehensive training workshops and webinars, a Global Health Certificate Program, fellowship and internship opportunities in the U.S. and abroad, and online courses which are freely available to the public.  The Global Health Certificate program is designed to provide a comprehensive understanding about successful global health and social entrepreneurship practices.  Another offering, the Online Global Health Course, discusses the importance of best practices to effect widespread, fundamental change in global health, and raises awareness and understanding that "worst practice" principles that are often employed by some organizations can do significant harm.

 

University of British Columbia "Surgical Care in International Health" Course
The Branch for International Surgery, within the surgery-related departments of the University of British Columbia, has established a new on-line graduate course, "Surgical Care in International Health." This course will encompass topics including the global burden of surgical disease and disability, global maternal mortality, surgical care education in global low-resource settings, and the role of surgical care professionals as advocates in international health. The intended audiences for this course are graduate level students, postgraduate trainees, and surgeons or surgery-related health practitioners; non-medical graduate students or others may register with permission from the instructor.

 

University of Massachusetts, International Health Education Student Handbook

Catalogues different international opportunities, resources, and travel tips.

 

Overseas Fellowships in Global Health and Clinical Research

The Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars Support Center at Vanderbilt University offers a one-year clinical research training experience for graduate-level U.S. students in the health professions. This is an opportunity for highly motivated individuals to experience mentored research training at top-ranked NIH-funded research centers in developing countries.

 

Financial Resources

Listed below are web sites that provide information on possible financial resources for international volunteers.

 

Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

List of recommended fellowship programs and funding information.

 

University of Arizona, Health Sciences Center, International Health in the Developing World: Clinical and Community Care

A compilation of possible sources of financial support for international health opportunities.

 

University of Washington, International Health Group

Provides information on funding sources for international opportunities.

 

University of Wisconsin-Madison, Center for Global Health

Provides information on funding sources for international opportunities.

 

Online Articles and News

 

Global Pulse Journal

The American Medical Student Association's online international health journal featuring research articles, editorials, personal accounts, and other materials from medical students, practicing physicians, and others working on global health issues.

 

Global Health TV

From the Global Health Council, Global Health TV is essentially a "YouTube" for international health which enables you to view and share the work being done and provides a forum for education about the health issues faced by communities around the world.

 

What Do You Really Know About Surgery?

Student BMJ 2009;17:b482

Iain Maronge

 

Ethical Considerations for Short-Term Experiences by Trainees in Global Health

JAMA, 2008, Volume 300, Issue 12, pp 1456-1458

John A. Crump, MB, ChB, DTM&H; Jeremy Sugarman, MD, MPH, MA

 

Using CANMEDS to guide international electives: an enriching experience in Uganda defined for a Canadian surgery resident
Canadian Journal of Surgery, 2008, Volume 51, Issue 4, pp 289-295
Goecke ME, Knnashiro J, Kyamanywa P, Hollaar GL. 
 
International surgery: definition, principles and Canadian practice
Canadian Journal of Surgery, 2003, Volume 46, Issue 5, pp 365-372
Lett R.
 
A survey of Canadian general surgery residents' interest in international surgery
Canadian Journal of Surgery, 2008, Volume 51, Issue 2, pp 125-129
Barton A, Williams D, Beveridge M.

 

The New Medical "Missionaries" - Grooming the Next Generation of Global Health Workers
The New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 354, Number 17, pp 1771-1773
Claire Panosian, M.D., and Thomas J. Coates, Ph.D.

 

Career influence of an international health experience during medical school
Family Medicine, June 2004, Volume 36, Issue 6, pp 412-6
Ramsey AH, Haq C, Gjerde CL, Rothenberg D

 

Academic Medicine, February 2008
The February 2008 issue of Academic Medicine profiled a variety of global health initiatives at several institutions.  All articles are available for free at the Academic Medicine website.

 

Learning without borders: Medical students take on the world - "Medical schools are offering overseas clerkships and students are eager to go."  Myrle Croasdale, AMNews, March 12, 2007, published on amednews.com.