The focus of international emergency medicine encompasses all that you've asked. Disaster medicine, establishing emergency medicine as a specialty in foreign countries, and international relief work in third world and underdeveloped countries are all aspects of international emergency medicine. It varies by country. For instance, in many African countries, it is just now feasible to establish emergency medicine as a specialty, and in these countries the primary focus is relief work. (E.g., Darfur region of Sudan) In countries such as Turkey, the primary involvement with international emergency medicine specialists is to establish the specialty of emergency medicine in the country.
If you pursue a career in academics, an IEM fellowship will provide you with training to direct a fellowship, resident elective, etc., and the experience to set up international rotations on your own. You will also get an MPH in international health.
The new USC international fellow is a former chief resident of my program. I email her from time to time. Let me know if you want me to put you in contact with her. She has a lot of international experience. She received a scholarship to go to Vietnam during residency, and spent time there teaching English before medical school. She went somewhere else during residency, but I cannot remember where.
A friend is now the director of the Harvard/Brigham & Women's program. If you are interested, I can put you in contact with her.
The Hopkins program is getting back up to par after a minor setback when its director left to join the Harvard program. Can't speak for the NYU program. The new program at Columbia has a director who seems very nice from my correspondence with her.
