Learning global health at home; describing a global health training for medical residents in NYC

Background Doctors who plan to work in global health settings lack adequate formal training in global health issues both at home and abroad

Method/Program In 2009, we developed a global health didactic and clinical two-week comprehensive training to advance medical residents’ knowledge and skills in addressing major global health issues at home and to prepare them for related global health positions. We offered this during residents' ambulatory block to the medical residents in combined Internal Medicine- Pediatrics residency program. We identified and incorporated relevant clinical exposures and global health topics into the elective. Experts from a wide range of organizations and institutions were included as elective preceptors. Course pillars were: a) clinical; Tropical Medicine Clinic including clinical laboratory sessions to perform simple tests, Travel Clinic, TB/Chest clinic, Immigrant/Continuity Clinic, and Human Rights Clinic with evaluating torture survivors with subsequent mentoring in writing the medical affidavit, b) didactic/socio-political; concepts in health and human rights and health challenges of populations from developing world. Milestone articles and readings were provided accordingly. Results We evaluated residents' feedback and satisfaction using questionnaires and open discussion forum. The residents responded that their knowledge and understanding of the presented topics improved more than 50% from their baseline. They found the usefulness, diversity and quality of sessions to be very good. Key lessons learned Our experience demonstrates lack of knowledge and skills in global health challenges at home amongst our residents, and supports the usefulness of a clinical and didactic training tailored to address these challenges.