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SECTION OF GLOBAL HEALTH

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Introduction

This section has been created in response to the growing interest of hospitalists looking to contribute to global health in a meaningful way.   As a group, we are committed to sustainability, supporting local capacity and “best practices” through education in global health and clinical care delivery to our partner sites.   Our mission is to develop a group of trained hospitalists dedicated to high quality and sustainable health care delivery in resource-limited settings globally.

Our partnerships provide a unique opportunity to enrich individual hospitalists’ development as physicians and global citizens. Projects are based on development of longitudinal relationships at carefully selected sites. This structure provides the framework for volunteers to gain foundational experience in regular engagement that is a critical feature of successful work abroad.

Core Experiences
 
This program consists of a four to five week clinical rotation in Belize at Hillside Health Care International. As the first site selected for our exchange, physicians are required to provide clinical care and mentoring of students in both medicine and in Global Health, serving the needs of both adults and children.
Clinical Care
Hospitalists are uniquely positioned to contribute to this international volunteer program because of their training in medical education, clinical qualifications in managing chronic diseases and schedule flexibility. Faculty in the Division of Hospital Medicine are also well suited to advance Northwestern University’s institutional agenda to support Global Health initiatives. Investing in this project also directly supports NU’s medical student education; HHCI will save spots for our students based on the “in-kind” contribution of our faculty staffing the clinic
Physician Responsibilities
Our current project is a partnership with Hillside Healthcare International where our main responsibilities include staffing the local and mobile clinics and precepting medical students.

- Oversight of medical care delivered during all of Hillside’s clinical activities including mobile clinics and the home visit program.

- Precepting medical/physician assistant students and medical residents during patient encounters for all Hillside clinical activities.

- Facilitating the medical education of Hillside medical/physician assistant students and residents through patient encounters, talks, case presentations, community health program, etc.

 

Faculty are encouraged to review the topics in this curriculum before overseas rotations. The modules include:

 

- Global Health 101

- Trip Preparation

- Global Health Topics in Central America (HHCI Lectures)

- Disease specific: Infectious, Non-Communicable, Injuries

- Cultural competency

 

   

 
  • Grants for global health education
  • Quality Improvement  Projects by long-term volunteers
  • Supporting FSM in educating students and residents in global health
  • Global Health/Hospital Medicine Fellowship
  • Addition of carefully selected sites: Haiti may be next !

 

Sample Schedule

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Additional Resources:

Orientation Guide for Hillside Volunteer Physicians

Belize/HHCI Resources (Scroll to additional resources at bottom of page)

Ashti Doobay, MD - Section DirectorAshti Doobay, MD - Section Director 

Please contact Ashti Doobay-Persaud ( adoobayp@nmh.org) to inquire about support from the Division for participation in the project and completion of the coursework.