Which specialties have the most global health opportunities?

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peanutbutter45654

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Curious which specialties offer the most opportunities to work abroad (either during residency or after). Thanks!
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Any primary care. Any surgical field. Emergency medicine.
 
Any specialty can generally find some sort of opportunity to do mission type work, but FM and EM probably tend to have the most broadly applicable skill set.
 
peanutbutter45654 said:
What about psych, derm, or plastic surg?
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My experience (n=1) when doing medical school in a developing country. I saw both organized and actually helpful work, and as well as A LOT of voluntourism.

Derm mostly no
Psych yes, but mostly in an organizational role
Plastics yes, mostly for burn victims and whatnot

Saw a lot of ENT, onc surgeons, Gyn, general surgery, pediatric surgery

Surgical specialties tend to contribute the most. People wait months for a surgery, sometimes we don't even have available surgeons that can perform specific procedures. With non-surgical fields, organizing an American NGO + local NGO is the way to go (imo).

We have enough derms, coming all the way here just to examine a few outpatient cases is a drop in the ocean. It would be different, however, if NGOs organized a Mohs Surgery block, were patients could be slotted and organized in advance. (we didn't really have derms in the country that did Mohs, as far as I know).
 
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peanutbutter45654 said:
What about psych, derm, or plastic surg?
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Based on my own experience doing regular work (1-2x/yr x 10 yrs except when COVID was bad) with a Central American organization that works with both local and US/Canadian docs to provide care in rural villages that otherwise would not have access...

Pysch is tough when you're talking about treating patients abroad on an intermittent, drop in/drop out basis. Is there a huge need for psychiatric care? Absolutely. But when we're talking about what is in the realm of what a psychiatrist usually manages - prescribing medication, maaaaybe doing some therapy for long-term mental health conditions - that's something that requires consistent follow up for many years. Tough for an American psychiatrist to do that when they're going to Kenya or whatever for a month out of a year, and may or may not return to that community again at all. Even tougher when you throw in different cultural ideas about mental health and treatment of psychiatric conditions.

I have certainly seen plenty of patients that would benefit from a dermatology consult. But, I have not seen many of them doing global health work personally, not sure why that is.

Agree with above regarding potential for surgeons to help including plastic surgery.

I would also encourage you to read some articles on the ethics and challenges of American doctors (and med students, premed, etc.) doing global health work if you have not already done so. There are ways it can be done right (obviously, or I wouldn't be doing it myself). But there are a lot of organizations and people out there doing things in a way that can be at best neutral, or at worst doing more harm than good. Make sure you know what to look for before you choose an organization to work with, and what you're getting into before you start.
 
percyeye said:
Psych, Derm, Plastic surgery? Sounds like you want to work more in Brooklyn rather than somewhere like Ghana. You can change 100 lives in a morning by doing cataract surgery, or any surgical field really.
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The only global stuff derm does is visit Italy for the 15th time.
 
percyeye said:
Psych, Derm, Plastic surgery? Sounds like you want to work more in Brooklyn rather than somewhere like Ghana. You can change 100 lives in a morning by doing cataract surgery, or any surgical field really.
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Actually I would never live in NYC... I want to help kids with cleft palate
 
peanutbutter45654 said:
Curious which specialties offer the most opportunities to work abroad (either during residency or after). Thanks!
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A psychiatrist once told me that "with a couch, you can do your job anywhere in the world, even in the Sahara."
 
Emergency Medicine, Primary Care specialties (including OB-GYN), Infectious disease, surgery and surgical subspecialties. Based on what I've seen/experienced.
 
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