Putting together a robust medical school-based Global Health program is a complicated process that requires a lot of energy and curriculum planning, says Majid Sadigh, M.D., an associate professor of medicine who directs the Global Health program at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and clinical teaching partner Danbury Hospital/Western Connecticut Health Network (WCHN). He gathered ways to improve that effort during a Dean’s Distinguished Lecture panel discussion he moderated, titled “Global Health: Philosophy, Perspective, Partnership and Lessons Learned,” on April 6, 2015 in the College of Medicine’s Sullivan Classroom.

Part of the College of Medicine’s recognition of Global Health Day, the discussion included three of Sadigh’s colleagues from Global Health program partner universities overseas. Professor Celestino Obua, vice chancellor of the Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda; Professor Ayrat Ziganshin, former vice rector on international affairs for Kazan State Medical University in Russia; and Susan Nassaka Byekwaso, international programs coordinator for Makerere University College of Health Sciences in Uganda, served as panelists at the event.

The discussion focused on three areas to “explore how we can best develop international operations for our trainees,” Sadigh says. They spoke about safety, cultural immersion and “biodirectionality” – the concept that medical professionals from foreign countries should have the opportunity to have the same level of educational experience in the United States as U.S. students have in their countries.

“What we gain should be equal to what they gain,” Sadigh says.

The discussion about safety recognizes that Global Health students can face a variety of risks in their host countries: disease, political strife or injury. In Uganda, for example, students are told to avoid riding the motor bikes that cause the bulk of road accidents in that country. They often need malaria vaccines, and when they arrive in their overseas location, they are supposed to register with the U.S. Embassy.

While striving to improve its Global Health infrastructure, UVM and WCHN continue to stand at the forefront of such programs nationwide, Sadigh says. At the Consortium of Universities in Global Health conference held in Boston March 26 to 28, UVM/WCHN presented five abstract posters for the second year in a row – more than any other university, he says.

The poster session, which took place on April 7, showcased projects conducted by groups of UVM and Danbury students and faculty, as well as their counterparts in the host countries, and were on display with additional posters and reflections in the Larner Classroom in the Medical Education Center.

Work by Anne Dougherty, M.D., UVM assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences (OB/GYN), and Maureen McDonald, M.D., a UVM OB/GYN resident, was exhibited at the poster session, which included such projects as: a nursing assistant training program in rural Uganda; resident education in Kampala, Uganda; bidirectional exchange between OB/GYN residents at UVM and Makerere University; and “Mitigating the Digital Divide” for medical students at the University of Zimbabwe. Another project concerned the challenges of Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, where as many as 5,000 patients vie for only 1,500 beds and a single nurse cares for about 120 patients, requiring friends and family to assist in that care. Sadigh’s daughter, UVM post baccalaureate pre-med student Mitra Sadigh, worked with the group that designed a survey of hundreds of those patients and their nonmedical caregivers to assess the social and economic strains on them. Many of the project team members were on hand to discuss their posters.

On the uvmmedicine blog: Read about Class of 2016 medical student Ian McDaniels' experience in Uganda.

PUBLISHED

04-03-2015
Carolyn Shapiro