Expressing interest in international medicine

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skysong7

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Is it bad to express an interest in international medicine in your personal statement? It's something I'm really interested in and is one of the main motivations for me to go into medicine. Are admissions committees going to assume I won't do any good to the local/domestic community and look at it as a strike against me? :confused:

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I have found that even schools with very active global health departments aren't interested much in hearing about interest in intl health until after you start. That's my impression, but no one has told me that directly.
 
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I'm not sure whether that would be held against you or not. But a fair question will pass through the mind of the person reviewing your application, and that is why not focus on the numerous health care issues in america. If your underlying interest is about focusing on serving in resource-poor communities with little access to healthcare, than emphasize that, noting that these communities might be at home or abroad.
 
I'm also planning on a career in international medicine. Most of my interviewers seemed to regard that positively, especially when I interviewed at schools with a strong focus on rural/underserved populations. I have a few years of international volunteer experience, and I think that added a lot of weight to my claim that I wanted to go work in West Africa once I'm an attending. If I didn't have any international experience I suspect that my interviewers would have thought that I was just making things up to sound like a better applicant. The only place I don't think my interest in international medicine helped was when I interviewed at my state school. I got the impression that they were only looking for students who wanted to stay in Alaska once they were doctors, and this school ended up being my only post-interview rejection.

I'm not sure whether that would be held against you or not. But a fair question will pass through the mind of the person reviewing your application, and that is why not focus on the numerous health care issues in america. If your underlying interest is about focusing on serving in resource-poor communities with little access to healthcare, than emphasize that, noting that these communities might be at home or abroad.

I had to answer this question once or twice at interviews. I pointed out that even the most underserved regions of the US have far more doctors per capita than the places I want to work, and even the worst doctors here are better than the ones you'll find in the rural parts of the third world. To me, "underserved area" means there's a clinic fifty miles away, and the doctor (who cheated his way through med school in Nigeria) that works there treats fractures by putting the broken limb on the exam table and jumping up and down on it a few times. True story.
 
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Ok this thread really pertains to me because I talked about how international service work that I have done has inspired me to want to serve underserved people. I also talk about how international work is something that I would like to do "about three weeks out of the year" hence not my career. I would like to get someone's opinion on this. I am not trying to hijack the thread I think it would also clarify for OP what medical schools expect out of you in terms of how much time you allocate to international work vs practicing in the states.
 
Depends on which country you want to work in. Working in Bangladesh sounds better to ADCOMs than working in France (or some other advanced country).
 
International work breaks down into two major categories: mission and policy. Both have potential hazards for the applicant but can be negotiated into a positive.

Students who participate in 2 week "missions" are not held in high esteem. Students with a validated ancestral (or other organic) interest are viewed differently i.e. positively.

Those interested in policy change for particular countries are seen in much the same light as those with an MPH (generally positively). Those with general, unfocussed gobal medicine themes are less well regarded.
 
Those interested in policy change for particular countries are seen in much the same light as those with an MPH (generally positively). Those with general, unfocussed gobal medicine themes are less well regarded.

I don't disagree that this is the case, but I'm curious why you think this is true. A general interest in global health does not seem to predict that someone will take their taxpayer-subsidized education and run away to Kenya and never return. This is very rare, and probably much more common in people who have extensive global health experience prior to med school (i.e. MPH or PC).

I find it confusing that many medical schools use their global health programs to attract applicants, while treating a pre-med interest in global health with some suspicion.
 
I have found that even schools with very active global health departments aren't interested much in hearing about interest in intl health until after you start. That's my impression, but no one has told me that directly.

This. Much better to frame it as having a strong desire to help by serving underserved populations, which isn't dishonest, than to say that you want to get trained and then pack up and leave for places unknown when on the application/interview trail.
 
Is it bad to express an interest in international medicine in your personal statement? It's something I'm really interested in and is one of the main motivations for me to go into medicine. Are admissions committees going to assume I won't do any good to the local/domestic community and look at it as a strike against me? :confused:

In college, they use international studies and semesters abroad as a selling point. In med school in many cases they'd really prefer you had that all out of your system and were ready to focus in on medicine. Med school has very little elective time and very set, busy curricula. Sure there will be a week or two over the four years of med school or during residency, where you might be able to go to Haiti or Africa along with some relief effort, but the notion that you want to do more than that during the first 3 1/2 years of a jam packed med school schedule won't win over adcoms.

Clinical medicine is, by it's nature, a local career. Its about building relationships with patients, continuity of care, something you can't do if your goal is to travel and practice internationally. Many med schools have mandates from the states to train people based on local needs. There are definitely doctor/scientists who deal with diseases on an international level, folks who focus on malaria and west Nile virus and other things that are more prevalent in countries other than the US, and there are organizations like doctors without borders who bring medicine to foreign countries with need, but their numbers are few, and the interest of med schools in attracting these types isn't high. Maybe you accept one person with this mindset for diversity purpose, but generally med school is a pretty domestic oriented form of schooling and training. The guy who wants to practice in an underserved region of the state is far more desirable to a med school than someone with wanderlust.

In law we saw the same kind if thing -- people applying to school wanting to do international law or Hollywood law or be a sports agent. Yeah those all sound like cool jobs but they aren't jobs you will get right out of law school and so the schools sort of looked at these applicants as not focused on actually wanting a legal career or being attuned to the needs of the profession they were applying to. I see it as similar in medicine. If you want to work internationally, or with pro athletes, or cater to celebrities, you are probably wise to keep those dreams to yourself until you are close to making it happen.
 
I don't disagree that this is the case, but I'm curious why you think this is true. A general interest in global health does not seem to predict that someone will take their taxpayer-subsidized education and run away to Kenya and never return. This is very rare, and probably much more common in people who have extensive global health experience prior to med school (i.e. MPH or PC).

I find it confusing that many medical schools use their global health programs to attract applicants, while treating a pre-med interest in global health with some suspicion.

This is one of those situations where it really depends on the school and the applicant.

Considering how many people in my class openly have significant global health interests, I'm pretty sure no one on our adcom looks down upon it, as long as you have the experience(s) to back it up. On top of that, a large percentage of our faculty does long term global health work themselves.

Its one thing to do a 2 week mission trip or a semester abroad and then frame your entire PS/secondary essays around global health. Its entirely another thing to work for the Peace Corps/UN or spend months abroad working on sustainable public health measures and mention your interest in essays.

It also depends on the school as to whether you'll have global health opportunities during med school. Between M1-M2 I'd say as much as 1/3 of my class spent time abroad doing research, public health work, or assisting our faculty/residents with annual summer medical clinics. We also have a large number of students who do rotations abroad during M4.

Basically, If you apply to schools with a stated global health mission and have the experience(s) to back it up, it shouldn't be a problem.
 
Depends on what you mean by international health, I suppose.

We have a thriving global health center at our school, and I think just about everyone goes abroad during their 4 years in med school. Several of our residency programs also have global health tracks. So, I don't think it'd be considered a bad thing at my school that you express interest in it from the beginning. We also have a lot of international students at my school, so it might just be the general climate here.

IN general, I think it'll depend on the school, as well as how you portray it. Are you aiming to spend your entire career in another country, or are you interested in supporting communities of local physicians, or are you merely interested in global health in the sense that you plan on tailoring your stateside practice to those coming and going from international ventures?
 
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