Best Medical Schools For Global Health

Dr. Elizabeth Rose advises students interested in pursuing global health as an integrated part of their medical training. Please reach out to her if you are interested in any of these courses, research opportunities, or activities.

Medical Students

Global health has become an inextricable component of medical. Demand is increasing for health professionals who can function competently in a global marketplace, who have research or service interests in health issues in developing countries, or who wish to address global inequities through training or service.

From in-country courses, clinical rotations, and research to on-campus research and activities, VIGH’s global health opportunities for medical students will introduce you to key topics and concepts in global health including diseases and their medical, social, and systemic root causes as well as clinical- and community-based interventions appropriate for low-resource settings. Past student rotations and projects span over three dozen countries where VIGH has partnerships and include a broad range of topics in global health from biomedical sciences and clinical investigation to socio-cultural correlates of health and health care delivery. Participation in global health research and training programs and other directed studies provide students with a foundation for future work as international clinicians, researchers, and public health workers.

Dr. Elizabeth Rose advises students interested in pursuing global health as an integrated part of their medical training. Please reach out to her if you are interested in any of these courses, research opportunities, or activities.

• Global Health Opportunities in Medical School

• Courses and Research
  • Watch Alex’s experience about incorporating a Research Immersion Project with a ISC/AE blocks
  • Read the quick overview of global health opportunities for VMS
  • Learn more about these courses and research in the sections below
  1. Confirm your course or research project with Dr. Rose
  2. Submit the VUSM Application for Travel Approval
  3. Complete the Global Safety Checklist for International Travel
     • More information:
       • Vanderbilt’s travel health & insurance resources
       • COVID-19 travel guidance
       • International travel registration
       • Contact info for VU travel clinic and VUMC travel clinic
  4. Complete Pre-departure training modules and workshop
  5. For ISC and AE sites that are not current VIGH partners (i.e., “alternative sites”), submit the AAMC Implementation Letter signed by your clinical site (please note, VIGH will facilitate signature by the VUSM Dean’s Office)
  6. Submit the VIGH Pre-departure Travel Checklist
  7. Refer to the US Department of State for the most up to date information regarding visa information, travel advisories, and other travel information
  8. Apply for funding (please note that funding is limited [~$400-700])

  The Integrated Science Course (ISC): Global Health is a one-month clinical rotation that introduces students to key topics and concepts in global health including diseases, conditions, and health interventions common in low-resource settings. Health and developmental issues across nations and cultures that require collective (partnership-based) action are highlighted. Students often rotate at VIGH partner hospitals and clinics in Guatemala, Jordan, Kenya, Peru, and elsewhere. Additionally, students can propose an “alternative site” in which they identify a site and arrange the rotation. This didactic course is taught through clinical immersion, online modules that introduce students to key topics and concepts in global health, weekly discussion boards and virtual mentoring sessions with VUSM faculty, and a capstone project and essay. The capstone project is identified in conjunction with the site so that the project is mutually beneficial to them and the student. Students are responsible for covering all of their personal expenses associated with the course and travel but small amounts of funding may be available.

  • Advanced Elective (AE): Global Health and Global Telehealth
  • assess the common health problems encountered at the site, the usual treatment protocols, and how management differs from that in the U.S. or other developed countries
  • learn how treatment and treatment decisions are influenced by local contexts, policies, and cultural components
  • mindfully and ethically draw on your ‘resourcefulness’ to navigate the various constraints of working in resource-constrained settings

  The hospital or clinic site is arranged by the student and approved by course directors. Approval can be facilitated by Vanderbilt faculty involvement at the site. Students are responsible for covering all of their personal expenses associated with the course and travel but small amounts of funding may be available.

  The AE Global Telehealth offers students an opportunity to engage with health care providers in clinical settings in eastern Africa, including Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. Through partnership with The Addis Clinic, based in Nashville, students communicate via WhatsApp with providers to participate in assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of patients. Clinical rotations are supplemented by foundational global health online modules. Students can register for this course without completing the ISC: Global Health (for the in-person AE course, students must first take the ISC). Students consult with The Addis Clinic to identify a capstone project that will be mutually beneficial to all.

  

  Through the VUSM research immersion in global health, VIGH supports medical students interested in global health research. Potential projects where Vanderbilt faculty have established partnerships span a wide range of countries, specialties, and types of research. over two dozen countries. You can view a curated list of potential research topicsor search the Global Health Opportunities Database, which may provide ideas for a potential research project. Students can, but not required, spend one to six months on-site. However, it is possible to complete your entire global health research project at Vanderbilt. Students receive mentoring from Vanderbilt faculty and funding is available to off-set the cost of travel. It is our goal that students publish their research immersion project.
  Past medical student global health research projects:

  • Attrition of psychiatric patients at the Mental Health Commission of Ayacucho
  • Patient perspectives on opt-out HIV screening in a Guyanese emergency department
  • Use of non-invasive serum biomarkers in gastric cancer and precursor screening in Chile
  • Epidemiology of hearing loss in Olancho, Honduras
  • Delirium Occurrence and Outcomes in a Zambian ICU
  • Digital mobile technology as a screening tool for eye care in rural Nepal
  • Mixed methods study of family planning in Lwala, Kenya
  • Barriers to and facilitators of child survival in Lwala, Kenya
  • Identifying factors associated with loss-to-follow-up among pre-ART patients in Zambezia Province, Mozambique through interview and other qualitative methods
  • Assessing a community development project associated with a micro-lending of livestock to HIV infected persons
  • Analyzing questions critical to the effective development, distribution, and consumption of the GuateNut product
  • Respiratory Syncytial Virus / Asthma and Dengue in the Northern Argentina
  • Public health assessments in the Navajo Reservation in “The Four Corners” (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado)

  Best Medical Schools for Global Health

  

  I’m strongly interested in this field, and I’m looking for schools that feature the following:
  variety of international rotations
  global health tracks or concentrations
  attached schools of public health that are strong in GH
  faculty doing significant international work

  The schools I’m aware of:
  Hopkins
  Tulane
  Penn
  Stanford
  Baylor

  Anywhere else come to mind for you all?

  The Knife & Gun Club

  EM/CCM PGY-4

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  ChrisMack390

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  50% of Cornell students do something abroad during medical school.

  scaredadvocate

  [redacted]

  Cornell has a large global health initiative
  Also the MSIH Medical School for International Health which was originally was a collaborative effort of Ben-Gurion and Columbia P&S, though I wouldnt recommend that as a primary medical school. I dont know how much is still done with Columbia
  http://in.bgu.ac.il/en/fohs/MSIH/Pages/default.aspx

  PS: actually a quick look at this new thing called GOOGLE showed many including
  Brown
  Pritzker
  Duke
  Dartmouth
  Tufts

  A lot of med schools have the words “global health” on their web pages as buzzwords, but aren’t actually committed to it in any real way. I was looking moreso for schools generally regarded as being strong in this area

  Immuno2020

  New Member

  scaredadvocate

  [redacted]

  NotAnotherPreMed

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  Yale has a certificate in global health program. On interview day they literally gave us a 100 page ‘booklet’ on global health at YSM.

  dkt888

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  TMC07

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  Medical College of Wisconsin has a global health track.

  Wright State has an MD/MPH in Global Health program. According to MSAR, 47% of their graduating seniors have been involved in a Global Health project (but this is self-reported, so beware).

  Georgetown and George Washington are both known supporters of Global Health and offer an MD/MPH in Global Health to students. I believe Georgetown’s MPH stuff is through Johns Hopkins. George Washington reports that 40% of their graduates have had a Global Health experience (again, take this with a grain of salt).

  meeeesh

  Full Member

  Einstein’s really into global health and has a lot of funding for it if I remember correctly.

  Jsor20

  Full Member

  I would love to know more about this and if experience in other countries make you stand out. I lived in Mozambique for a couple of years and volunteered throughout the country. I also will be going with baylors college of medicine to Botswana this summer as an undergrad even though I’m not from Texas. Will these help me stand out as an applicant at these schools that advocate for global health?

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  darkjedi

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  Penn paid for my airfare and housing abroad twice during med school. Once to South America, and the other time to Botswana, which is our flagship global health program. Botswana was probably one of the most amazing medical experiences I had in med school. Harvard, Baylor and Penn all have partnerships with the main hospital in Bots, and there are tons of other schools that have other partnerships with various countries as well. I would say that while established global health opportunities are great to have at some schools, as long as which ever med school you go to has the support and funding to send you abroad, it doesn’t matter that much where you go. There are tons of abroad opportunities that are independent from schools and can be done as electives where ever you come from.

  carpediem22

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  Joined Mar 12, 2015 Messages 791 Reaction score 1,041

  Schools with strong public health schools with global emphasis will have many global health opportunities, even outside of the curriculum.

  Harvard and Hopkins are probably the strongest from a global health research and name recognition standpoint. This matters more than you think — in international settings, coming from a school that people have heard of opens doors and makes people more willing to work with you. Yale and Stanford are also pretty up there with global name recognition.

  University of Washington, UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, Penn, Cornell, and Columbia also are known for strong global health programs and research, though global name recognition might be smaller.