Which MD speciality would be the most "useful" in the Third World?

BU Medical Sciences
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

Which MD specialty would be the most "useful" in the Third World?

  • Anesthesiology

    Votes: 3 0.4%

  • Dermatology

    Votes: 8 0.9%

  • Emergency Medicine

    Votes: 127 14.9%

  • Family Medicine

    Votes: 225 26.4%

  • Internal Medicine and IM Subspecialties

    Votes: 235 27.6%

  • Neurology and Neurosurgery

    Votes: 2 0.2%

  • Obstetrics and Gynecology

    Votes: 37 4.3%

  • Ophthalmology: Eye Physicians & Surgeons

    Votes: 20 2.4%

  • Orthopaedic Surgery

    Votes: 5 0.6%

  • Pathology

    Votes: 15 1.8%

  • Pediatrics

    Votes: 45 5.3%

  • PM&R

    Votes: 1 0.1%

  • Psychiatry

    Votes: 7 0.8%

  • Radiation Oncology

    Votes: 5 0.6%

  • Radiology

    Votes: 1 0.1%

  • Surgery and Surgical Subspecialties

    Votes: 91 10.7%

  • Urology

    Votes: 3 0.4%

  • Other: Elaborate and Explain below...

    Votes: 20 2.4%
  • Total voters
    851
I know a D.O. who is practicing in the third world. I don't think the African countries are that picky...
 
Actually, I take that back. I know they're not that picky, because they let me patch stuff up and I don't have a degree in fricking anything...
 
i don't know actually, but another girl who was at columbia said that US MDs have to take England exams (similar to the boards) if they want to practice there....and i know doctors from india/pakistan have to take exams/re-do residency when they come here..... i just don't think an MD degree is international (although, it'd be awesome if this is true)...anyone have any info?
 
burton117 said:
Someone at the D.O. school near me (Midwestern University - IL) said that the D.O. licensing exam is for only the united states, where as the M.D. licensing exam gives you the right to practice internationally. I don't know if this is correct or not as this is hearsay - but as DO's can sit for the MD licensing exam around the same time as their licensing exam, this may not be an issue. Please correct me if I am wrong...
Click to expand...

Ok.. Did some research and here is the official word on D.O's and M.D's on their international practice scope.

Doctor of Osteopathy:

"Osteopathic medicine as practiced in the United States continues to gain recognition throughout the world. Osteopathic physicians, or D.O.s, currently have unlimited practice rights in roughly 50 countries, with partial practice rights in many more."


Source: American Osteopathic Association Website

List of Countries where US trained Osteopaths are Recognized
 
Doctor of Medicine:

... still researching.... 😕
 
burton117 said:
Doctor of Medicine:

... still researching.... 😕
Click to expand...


Well, I have not been able to find any information on which countries do and do not recognize United-States trained MD's.

Does anybody have any information as to this effect?

Thanks.
 
great stories on this thread... Anybody else have any stories from developing countries? Let's hear them. 😀

I am always glad to see the interest in third world medicine is out there! 👍
 
burton117 said:
Anybody else out there have experience with working in developing countries and is willing to share their stories?

Alternatively, if anyone has read any good books about medical / dental work overseas - that would be great to hear about too! 👍
Click to expand...


Here's a list I found elsewhere on SDN. Not necessarily all on overseas work, but a good start... I read complications - Awesome book. Also I read Mountains beyond Mountains as well. I definitely enjoyed it quite a bit!

Pre-Med Reading Essentials

Complications by Atul Gawande
Phantoms in the Brain by V.S. Ramachandran
Emergency Doctor by Lewis Goldfrank
Singular Intimacies and Incidental Findings by Danielle Ofri
The Intern Blues by Robert Marion
Gifted Hands by Benjamin Carson
On Call by Emily Transue
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
When the Air Hits Your Brain by Frank Vertosick
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks
The House of God by Samuel Shem
Kill as Few Patients as Possible by Oscar London
Just Here Trying to Save a Few Livesby Pamela Grim
On Doctoring by Richard Reynolds
The House of God by Samuel Shem
What I Learned in Medical School by Kevin Takakuwa
What Patients Taught Me by Audrey Young
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity by Roy Porter
Letters to a Young Doctor by Richard Selzer
The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston
The Lost Art of Healing by Dr. Bernard Lown
 
I've been to a former soviet state 2x now, and will go again a bunch of times. Our small team works in the children's hospital there providing surgical care to children that wouldn't otherwise receive it. Kids here get these things corrected when they are born (such as clubfoot) or before they become permanent damage (septic hip). It is incredible how much need there is. I couldn't possibly describe it all here. The equipment & supplies they need, like that they wash & re-use gauze, blades, gloves, ET & NG tubes. It strikes me that they could use a great deal of training & education in prenatal care, for example. Their anesthesia practices are old because they can't afford newer equipment, drugs, or training. Every time we have gone, there has been at least one child admitted while we were there that would have died or lost a limb if they hadn't come when we were there. They diagnose kids as having scoliosis when there is a 10 degree curve in the spine - so the poor kids go around in these braces they don't really need!

When I came home from the first trip, and saw my best friend's 4 year old daughter, I hugged her like I never had before, and the tears came. The relief of knowing she had everything she needed or had access to it was overwhelming. It surprised me because I hadn't realized how strongly the trip had affected me.
 
Orthodoc40 said:
I've been to a former soviet state 2x now, and will go again a bunch of times. Our small team works in the children's hospital there providing surgical care to children that wouldn't otherwise receive it. Kids here get these things corrected when they are born (such as clubfoot) or before they become permanent damage (septic hip). It is incredible how much need there is. I couldn't possibly describe it all here. The equipment & supplies they need, like that they wash & re-use gauze, blades, gloves, ET & NG tubes. It strikes me that they could use a great deal of training & education in prenatal care, for example. Their anesthesia practices are old because they can't afford newer equipment, drugs, or training. Every time we have gone, there has been at least one child admitted while we were there that would have died or lost a limb if they hadn't come when we were there. They diagnose kids as having scoliosis when there is a 10 degree curve in the spine - so the poor kids go around in these braces they don't really need!

When I came home from the first trip, and saw my best friend's 4 year old daughter, I hugged her like I never had before, and the tears came. The relief of knowing she had everything she needed or had access to it was overwhelming. It surprised me because I hadn't realized how strongly the trip had affected me.
Click to expand...


Sounds like quite an experience. But, just out of curiosity, how do you balance international medical work with your normal clinical responsibilities?
 
TheMightyAngus said:
Sounds like quite an experience. But, just out of curiosity, how do you balance international medical work with your normal clinical responsibilities?
Click to expand...

I personally don't have to, just being a premed student. I just tell work when I'm going and they say, "Wow - sounds great - thanks for letting us know!" But the surgeon who is organizing these trips somehow does it - and believe me, most people who know her can't figure out how she does it except that she gets 3 hrs of sleep a night. As far as going on the trips, we have to use our vacation time. A few of the doctors were able to get their dept. at the hospital to fund their trip. Most others (including me) are paying for it out of their own pockets.

As far as the part where we collect supplies, equipment and such to ship over there - well that is something we just fit in as we can. We've spent weekends renting trucks to go pick up donated OR tables, anesthesia machines, lots of other supplies, collected them all in someone's garage, and then spent weekends loading up a 40 x 40 container to have it shipped out there. You just deal with it like, 4 more phone calls you have to make today, 3 more emails you have to reply to today, etc. etc... Not sure if I answered your question?
 
This is one of the most fufilling post I have seen here in a very long time. Like someone mention above, I also have been thinking a lot lately about how I want to be of help to nations in serious need of medical help. I am Nigerian and and have been lucky to live and get accepted to a few American medical schools. For me, I guess I will have to start early. I plan to start by taking courses in medical spanish, and international health (or public health) as electives during my first two years. The summer following the first year will hopefully be spent in a latin American country. Here I plan to do the intensive spanish program while volunteering and helping out at local hospitals. I am choosing spanish because as I said before, I am Nigerian and can already speak 2 (well more like 1 and a half) of the 3 major languages in Nigeria. I feel as though I can get around in other parts of Africa with little help. (If I have to work in certain Asian countries, I will need serious help as I know very little about this continent). Unlike Africa, Spanish is a wide spread language in latin America (not all, but most), so being able to relate to people via spanish will be very useful. During my clinical years, I also hope to do some electives overseas.

The dilemma however sets in when I consider the fact that 1) I am more interested in surgical specialties (this could of course change. But right now, you could say I am passionate about this). 2) I want to raise my (future) family in the U.S .....This one is particularly difficult because most jobs will not allow physicians to leave their practice for an extended period of time. My goal would be to spend 2 (or 3) months every year serving as a doctor in a developing nation. Also, will my future wife ever agree to such a thing? Oh well, maybe I will be lucky to find someone interested in international health or other issues as well.

I guess it would be nice if I could work for the U.N, WHO or other like minded organizations. I know physicians (one of them is a surgeon) who mostly works in the U.S, but still gets paid to go overseas for about 2 months every year. I however have no clue about how easy it would be to get such a position.

In the end I that I could team up with people (hopefully some of you guys) and have an impact somewhere. I know we are the future of medicine. The fact that we have all these ideas should motivate us seek change.
 
Orthodoc40 said:
As far as the part where we collect supplies, equipment and such to ship over there - well that is something we just fit in as we can. We've spent weekends renting trucks to go pick up donated OR tables, anesthesia machines, lots of other supplies, collected them all in someone's garage, and then spent weekends loading up a 40 x 40 container to have it shipped out there. You just deal with it like, 4 more phone calls you have to make today, 3 more emails you have to reply to today, etc. etc... Not sure if I answered your question?
Click to expand...

Sounds like a great way to support overseas missions without ever going overseas! I am sure there are huge opportunites here as well.

Sweet 👍
 
burton117 said:
Sounds like a great way to support overseas missions without ever going overseas! I am sure there are huge opportunites here as well.

Sweet 👍
Click to expand...


I guess it could be - though we are supporting our own mission by doing this. We sent a re-furbished C-arm to them along w/OR tables, anesthesia machines, and just tons & tons of donated supplies filling a 40' x 40' container in August. It got there, not a month before us, as planned, unfortunately, but a week after we LEFT their country! They were still thrilled, but we weren't there to help set them up with everything.
 
hey guys, I think this thread is great. Does anyone know of any medical schools with programs like these- they aren't always advertised on websites (and I may have not really been looking at that school in the first place)? I've been reading all of these stories and opportunities and my premed eyes are getting wide. This would totally help in my school selection process. Thanks!
 
Rainman84 said:
hey guys, I think this thread is great. Does anyone know of any medical schools with programs like these- they aren't always advertised on websites (and I may have not really been looking at that school in the first place)? I've been reading all of these stories and opportunities and my premed eyes are getting wide. This would totally help in my school selection process. Thanks!
Click to expand...

A bunch of schools have great int'l programs. I sure don't know them all, but on our plane ride back from our latest mission, I sat next to a guy who was just returning from 2 months in Africa on an ID elective. He was an M4 at Penn State & it sounded like an incredible experience.

If people are REALLY committed to international medicine, the program through Ben Gurion/Columbia is worth serious consideration!
 
Hey,

Coming from a third world country myself, I must say that there is a need for the surgical specialties. The family/internal/pediatric thing is seriously covered. There aren't any doctors that are seriously trained in a specific area of surgergy and as such, US doctors are constantly brought in to do procedures. That's just my $0.02.
 
keedz said:
Hey,

Coming from a third world country myself, I must say that there is a need for the surgical specialties. The family/internal/pediatric thing is seriously covered. There aren't any doctors that are seriously trained in a specific area of surgergy and as such, US doctors are constantly brought in to do procedures. That's just my $0.02.
Click to expand...

That is what I have seen. They are always thrilled when we come in to do surgery for them. There are so many procedures they would just go without. There is also the fact that their surgeons aren't as well trained or practiced to address the problem - or they just don't have the equipment available to them, or even a reliable power supply. A 12 year old boy came in while we were there - he'd fallen from a tree and his leg was completely sliced up. Muscles torn through flapping this way & that - his skin was all jaggedly cut up. His family brought him in to the ER and said if it was going to cost anything not to do anything. He would have either died or lost his leg that night had the orthopedic surgeons on our team not been there. It was 8:30pm and we were on the way out for dinner but as soon as we saw him in the OR, and the hospital's own orthopedic surgeon leaning over the table scratching his head about how to deal with it - we turned around and scrubbed in to help him out. And that is just one emergency case. There are millions of non-emergency surgical needs!
 
burton117 said:
Anybody have any insights into dentistry?
Click to expand...

We've run into some dentist groups on our trips. They have much to do! Maybe the dental forums would be the best for this question, though... 😕
 
Orthodoc40 said:
A bunch of schools have great int'l programs. I sure don't know them all, but on our plane ride back from our latest mission, I sat next to a guy who was just returning from 2 months in Africa on an ID elective. He was an M4 at Penn State & it sounded like an incredible experience.

If people are REALLY committed to international medicine, the program through Ben Gurian/Columbia is worth a serious consideration!
Click to expand...

Cool.. I will definitely start investigating. Thanks!
 
Fantasy Sports said:
Infectious Disease
Click to expand...

I agree. How about the best medical school for someone looking to practice medicine in the third world? Any schools with a strong international focus?
 
leahmaria said:
I agree. How about the best medical school for someone looking to practice medicine in the third world? Any schools with a strong international focus?
Click to expand...
there's a thread a few pgs down about this, and there have been others... as far as I can tell, you can definitely find schools with global health opportunities (and some MD/Master's Global Health combined programs) but the important thing will be seeking out your own opportunities to do rotations abroad, find a residency that fits what you're interested in, etc etc.
 
😀 bump... still one of my favorite threads...
 
Ophthalmologists can save some poor man/woman with a cataract from blindless in 15 minutes, can't beat that for efficacy/time.
 
Just curious, how did pathology get 10 votes? But PM&R hasn't gotten any? What about all of the amputees in war zones and people who lose limbs to land mines?
 
This is a great thread guys.

I have a question, what do you guys think about Peds ID?

What type of training does this entail? Would I have to do Internal Medicine and then a fellowship in ID? Or is it like, as I suspect, Peds then a fellowship in ID?

Thx

C&C
 
CatsandCradles said:
This is a great thread guys.

I have a question, what do you guys think about Peds ID?

What type of training does this entail? Would I have to do Internal Medicine and then a fellowship in ID? Or is it like, as I suspect, Peds then a fellowship in ID?

Thx

C&C
Click to expand...

Peds then ID
 
AF_PedsBoy said:
If you're going there with a charity group like Mercyship, then surgery or dentist is best. Primary care is almost useless because you stop in for a couple of days or so and then disappear, so there's no follow up with nutrition, meds, development, etc. It's all quick fixes.

If you are going to stay or live there for at least 6 months or more, then primary care specialties are more important
Click to expand...

Opthalmoology (although, technically, so is optometry) is also useful in interventionist visits.
👍
 
Dr_Amr said:
well , I was talking about my country ( egypt ) at least,

anyhow , any efforts aiming at raising physicians' scientific level is appreciable , I even think sending text books is a good thing to do 🙂
Click to expand...

Dr Amr ...how r u ??
r u still in egy.?
 
YzIa said:
I agree with primary care. Such a need for general medicine in underdeveloped countries.
Click to expand...

x2. From my experiences in West Africa, I noticed there are too many rural/underserved areas too.
 
I had the pleasure of sitting in a seminar led by a doc that served in Africa multiple times, with one of the medical missionary groups. He is a family practice doc. The main point from his lecture was that there are not enough doctors of ANY specialty down there. The solution? The good doc brought over some medical textbook, and basically taught himself much of the things that he needs to know to help as many patients as best he can. He also had to relearn some ancient medical techniques to be able to use the equipments there (ever seen someone fixing a broken leg with a sandbag lever?)

I guess my point is that whatever your specialty is, if you're going to dedicate your life to serving in some underdeveloped countries, you must be prepared to be versatile and creative, and that your training and qualification as a specialist does not preclude you from learning and performing other specialty through the course of your career.
 
I am a bit biased but I would definetly say infectious disease. Infectious diseases we don't even worry about here ravage the third world. It also would not be that hard to get the appropriate drugs because it usually the same diseases doing all the damage.
 
A lot of people are saying both medicine and family medicine. Neither of these would be the case. Emergency medicine all the way, the reason being all of the medications that you are taught to use to fix certain problem do not exist in enough quanitites to be viable cures for a disease. Most diseases are treated with the same sets of drugs, which anybody can be taught to administer. There is not enough to warrant the vast knowledge of treatment plans that US MD's are taught. Emergency med will have enough knowledge to use the basic drugs available effectively and still treat the emergent cases appropriately.
 
Internal Medicine and IM Subspecialties -- Infectious Diseases
 
family doctors/primary care physician/internists/general surgeons/NURSES

All very necessary in the area I was in a couple years.
 
I'm editing my response to OB/GYN.
So many of the health problems these kids are born with could be prevented with proper education for both patients and the physicians on care prenatally, and also during the birthing process. It's scarey.
 
Another fantasic book - Pain: the Gift Nobody Wants by Dr. Paul Brand & Philip Yancey
Dr. Brand spent the greater part of his life as a surgeon in India treating Leprosy patients
 
I think the most useful physician in many of the underdeveloped nations is probably just any physician that actually goes over there. Sadly, I think that there are many of us that have great intentions to work overseas but get delayed or never go because of debt, family, or variety of other reasons.

I hope to do as much as I can to keep this from happening to me, but I know it is a very real threat.
 
LabVIEWMD said:
Another fantasic book - Pain: the Gift Nobody Wants by Dr. Paul Brand & Philip Yancey
Dr. Brand spent the greater part of his life as a surgeon in India treating Leprosy patients
Click to expand...

I second that: definitely a great read!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

X0001234
Which medical schools produce the most academic physicians?
Replies
2
Views
1K
LizzyM
LizzyM
premedbarista
should I prioritize getting my secondaries done by the 2 week goal (which would be by Friday) or would taking a bit more time be ok?
Replies
3
Views
1K
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
geographicalpigeon
Would it be considered "too late" to add more schools to AMCAS at this point in the cycle?
Replies
3
Views
2K
FuturePediatricNeurosurge
FuturePediatricNeurosurge
M
Travel vs Photography: which is the better EC?
Replies
3
Views
562
Goro
Goro
S
Should substance abuse recovery be used in essays?
Replies
13
Views
3K
Styrene
Styrene
Top