IM Residencies with international emphasis?

[Paranoid Android]

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Hello all...been awhile. Just wondering if anybody has any thoughts on US IM residencies that have specific focus or offer good opportunity for training or practicing international medicine. Are there any university-based programs that have these kinds of things in place? Comments appreciated!

 

[irlandesa]

yes, Brown and Yale (both Traditional and Primary Care). Yale will pay for residents to work abroad in developing countries as well as through the Indian Health Service for 1 month/yr. This was probably the program feature that impressed me the most when I interviewed there.

 

[Elahuhu]

Indiana University has a sister school located in Eldoret, Kenya (Moi University). Housestaff in medicine are able to do 6 week rotations there, and I have yet to meet anybody who has not described it as a life-changing experience. I don't know all the details (I only went to med school at IU, not residency), but if you want more info, go to:

http://internal.medicine.iu.edu/reason/reason07.html

and

http://medicine.iupui.edu/kenya/introduction.html

Hope this helps.

 

[whispers]

The Brigham has a program called Social Medicine and Health Inequality.
http://www.brighamandwomens.org/socialmedicine/gheresidency.asp

 

[Peeshee]

How competitive are these programs?

 

[epalantequevoy]

bwh seems ultra competitive with only 2 slots per year. can anyone comment specifically on that one?

 

[AJM]

bwh seems ultra competitive with only 2 slots per year. can anyone comment specifically on that one?

Well, the bwh global health equity program is very new. I believe this is only it's second year in existence, so I don't really know how competitive it is or how many people will want to do it in the future. It's a little less competitive than you might think because they limit their selection pool to brigham interns (who are selected toward the end of their intern year after an application process). Of course, not every resident in the program will want to do this, or to extend their residency by an extra year, so the applicant pool is somewhat self-limited as well. So far I've heard great things about the program. The brigham medicine program has some amazing international contacts because there are a number of brigham graduates who after residency have gone to various indigent sites and set up clinics/public health research projects. Most of these graduates are still at these sites and periodically come back to bwh to talk about what they're doing.

Even if you don't get into the GHE program at the brigham, the international experiences are still open to you as options during residency. During the 3rd year, bwh residents get about 6 months of research time -- some have taken this time to go abroad to one of these sites to do work there (not through the ghe program). There's also a month-long rotation at Shiprock, new mexico, where you work at the IHS -- usually the primary care residents do this, but I think you can also do this if you're not primary care. People absolutely love that rotation.

 

[epalantequevoy]

Thanks, AJM. I'm new to this whole medical school thing, but now that I've started year 1 I'm looking a year or two into the future and I've been contemplating a couple of things. One is to do an MPH in the middle of med school, either after 2nd or 3rd year, then do residency after finishing. Another would be to do a year fellowship in applied epidemiology with the CDC instead of getting the MPH. But now that I just heard about this new program at the Brigham, I have to think about that. It seems like a long way away, but I really have until the end of this year to decide about picking up the extra degree/fellowship.

And it's also good to know about the Brigham's international opportunities if I were to match there and not get into the program with Social Medicine.

 

[atsai3]

Duke and MetroHealth Medical Center (Case Western Reserve University) both have an international health track as well.

-AT.

 

[70s]

Very generous, flexible, program. Associate Program Director hired to head it.

 

[irlandesa]

found out recently that UMass (my new program!) has a Center for International Health on campus that is supposed to be great for setting students and FP residents up for International rotations; if you're an IM resident you may have to be more aggressive about getting support, but definitely worth a look IMO.

 

[gwen]

UPenn allows its medicine residents to go to Botswana for a month to work at one of the hospitals it owns(?) and pays for your plane and stay. plus you get some vacation time to spend there as well. nice deal.

 

[epalantequevoy]

does anyone at mayo know about the mayo im program?

 

[Peeshee]

Regarding IM residencies with international health, does anyone know if there are more programs than the ones listed on AMSA's website? They list the following IM programs with international health emphasis avail.:
1- Brown
2-Duke
3-Indiana University
4-Tulane
5-West Virginia University
6-Yale