Degrees of engagement: Family physicians and global health (original) (raw)
Related papers
Developing a global health practitioner: Time to act?
Medical Teacher, 2011
Although many health issues transcend national boundaries and require international co-operation, global health is rarely an integral part of the medical curriculum. While medical schools have a social responsibility to train healthcare professionals to serve local communities, the internationalisation of medical education (e.g. international medical students, export of medical curricula or medical schools) makes it increasingly difficult to define it as 'local'. It is therefore necessary to produce practitioners who can practice medicine in an ever-changing and unpredictable world. These practitioners must be clinically and culturally competent as well as able to use their global knowledge and experience to improve health and well-being, irrespective of where they eventually practice medicine. Global health practitioners are tomorrow's leaders, change agents and members of effective multiprofessional teams and so need to be aware of the environmental, cultural, social and political factors that impact on health, serving as advocates of people's rights to access resources, education and healthcare. This article addresses some of the difficulties of developing global health practitioners, offering suggestions for a global health curriculum. It also acknowledges that creating a global health practitioner requires international collaboration and shared resources and practices and places the onus of social accountability on academic leaders.
Global Health, 2013
BACKGROUND: Interest and participation in global health activities among U.S. medical trainees has increased sharply in recent decades, yet the global health activities of physicians who have completed residency training remain understudied. Our objectives were to assess associations between individual characteristics and patterns of post-residency global health activities across the domains of health policy, education, and research. METHODS: Cross-sectional, mixed methods national survey of 521 physicians with formal training in clinical and health services research and policy leadership. Main measures were post-residency global health activity and characteristics of this activity (location, funding, products, and perceived synergy with domestic activities). RESULTS: Most respondents (73%) hold faculty appointments across 84 U.S. medical schools and a strong plurality (46%) are trained in internal medicine. Nearly half of all respondents (44%) reported some global health activity after residency; however, the majority of this group (73%) reported spending ≤10% of professional time on global health in the past year. Among those active in global health, the majority (78%) reported receiving some funding for their global health activities, and most (83%) reported at least one scholarly, educational, or other product resulting from this work. Many respondents perceived synergies between domestic and global health activities, with 85% agreeing with the statement that their global health activities had enhanced the quality of their domestic work and increased their level of involvement with vulnerable populations, health policy advocacy, or research on the social determinants of health. Despite these perceived synergies, qualitative data from in-depth interviews revealed personal and institutional barriers to sustained global health involvement, including work-family balance and a lack of specific avenues for career development in global health. CONCLUSIONS: Post-residency global health activity is common in this diverse, multi-specialty group of physicians. Although those with global health experience describe synergies with their domestic work, the lack of established career development pathways may limit the benefits of this synergy for individuals and their institutions.
Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien, 2017
To assess family medicine's role in developing strong, coordinated, community-based, integrated health care systems in low-resource settings globally. A subgroup of the Besrour Centre of the College of Family Physicians of Canada developed connections with selected international colleagues with expertise in international family medicine practice, health systems and capacity building, and teaching to map family medicine globally and give a bird's eye view of family medicine internationally. Following a background literature review, the authors collectively reflected on their substantial international experience to attempt to describe best practices for various contexts. With the failure of vertical, disease-oriented models to provide sustained improvements in health outcomes, the need to develop integrated primary care involving the most appropriate health professionals for differing contexts is becoming apparent worldwide. Health system planning is required to develop polici...
Global Health in Family Medicine Summer Primer: Course for residents and faculty
Canadian family physician Médecin de famille canadien, 2015
Despite the rapid emergence of global health training across North American universities, there remains a gap in educational programs focusing on the unique role of family medicine and primary care in global health. The objective of the Global Health in Family Medicine Summer Primer, developed in 2013 by the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto in Ontario, is to strengthen global health competencies among family medicine residents and faculty. The course covers the meaning of global health; global health ethics; the place of family medicine, primary care, and primary health care in the global health context; epidemiology; infectious diseases; the social determinants of health; and care of vulnerable populations locally and globally. The course is delivered in an intensive 5-day format with didactic lectures, group discussions, interactive workshops, and lived-experience panels. The Global Health in Family Medicine Summer Primer has proven to be a ...
Pediatricians and Global Health: Opportunities and Considerations for Meaningful Engagement
Pediatrics, 2018
Pediatric practitioners are often drawn to child health by a desire to care for the most vulnerable. In treating childhood health conditions, pediatricians bear witness to social disparities, serving in dual roles of health practitioner and health advocate. Given this, it is not surprising that many pediatric practitioners from high-income countries feel a calling to improve the health of all children regardless of the child's geographic location. 1, 2 METHODS This review was prepared by an expert panel of pediatric practitioners with clinical, research,
What Does a Mutually Beneficial Global Health Partnership in Family Medicine Residency Look Like?
AMA Journal of Ethics, 2019
Motivated by interest in enhancing their clinical experience and contributing to communities in need, US medical resident physicians are increasingly keen to train abroad. Guidelines are needed to help ensure that trainee, institutional, and faculty engagement in global health is ethically appropriate and mutually beneficial for all involved. Supported by the nonprofit organization Seed Global Health, the WWAMI-University of Malawi/College of Medicine partnership leverages long-term US faculty to structure rotations for Malawian and American trainees and endorses strong onboarding, monitoring, and evaluation practices and a mutually beneficial bidirectional international partnership and exchange model. Global Health Experiences Global health has been defined by Koplan et al as an "area of study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide," 1 and it is increasingly recognized as an important component of medical education in the United States. Many medical schools and residencies that have global health programs have established ways to incorporate global health immersion experiences. 2 Today, about 36% of medical students have volunteered abroad. 3 Academic global health programs are motivated not only by increased student and trainee demand but also by a range of pragmatic, consequentialist considerations.
Academic Emergency Medicine, 2012
ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2012; 19:683–692 © 2012 by the Society for Academic Emergency MedicineWhile personal and organizational challenges occur in every area of health care, practitioners of international medicine face unique problems and dilemmas that are rarely discussed in training programs. Health professions schools, residency and fellowship programs, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and government programs have a responsibility to make those new to international medicine aware of the special circumstances that they may face and to provide methods for understanding and dealing with these circumstances.Standard “domestic” approaches to such challenges may not work in international medicine, even though these challenges may appear to be similar to those faced in other clinical settings. How should organizations ensure that well‐meaning health intervention efforts do not cause adverse unintended sequelae? How should an individual balance respect for cultural uniqueness a...
Eyes wide open: an essay on developing an engaged awareness in global medicine and public health
Background: There is a growing understanding of the role social determinants such as poverty, gender discrimination, racial prejudice, and economic inequality play on health and illness. While these determinants and effects may be challenging to identify in parts of high-income countries, they are patently obvious in many otherareas of the world. How we react to these determinants and effects depends on what historical, cultural, ideological,and psychological characteristics we bring to our encounters with inequity, as well as how our feelings and thoughts inform our values and actions. Discussion: To address these issues, we share a series of questions we have asked ourselves—United States’ citizens with experience living and working in Central America—in relation to our encounters with inequity. We offer a conceptual framework for contemplating responses in hopes of promoting among educators and practitioners in medicine and public health an engaged awareness of how our every day work either perpetuates or breaks down barriers of social difference. We review key moments in our own experiences as global health practitioners to provide context for these questions. Summary: Introspective reflection can help professionals in global medicine and public health recognize the dynamic roles that they play in the world. Such reflection can bring us closer to appreciating the forces that have worked both for and in opposition to global health, human rights, and well-being. It can help us recognize how place, time, environment, and context form the social determination of health. It is from this holistic perspective of social relations that we can work to effect fair, equitable, and protective environments as they relate to global medicine and public health. Keywords: Epidemiologic factors, Health knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Internationality, Public health, Role, Professional, Social medicine
Can global health opportunities lead to an increase in primary care physicians?
Journal of Global Health, 2020
www.jogh.org • doi: 10.7189/jogh.10.020387 1 December 2020 • Vol. 10 No. 2 • 020387 Global health opportunities remain popular among United States (US) medical students. According to the annual AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) medical student questionnaire, thirty percent of graduating medical students participated in a global health elective during their training [1]. Although this average has remained constant since 2012, the percentage of first year US medical students who plan to participate ranges from sixty to eighty percent. Interest in global health persists even after graduation with 66% of newly graduated physicians planning to participate in global health activities [2]. In addition to experiencing unfamiliar diverse disease pathology, benefits of participating in global health electives includes increased medical knowledge with improved physical exam skills while decreasing reliance on laboratory or radiology studies. Physicians report international health...