Global Health Leadership Track

1. Global Health Courses. Two-week intensive courses in Tropical Medicine and Policy and Practices in Global Health are offered. GHLT track participants are encouraged to take both courses. TheTropical Medicine course will teach residents to identify, treat and prevent common tropical medical problems and will qualify residents to sit for the Tropical Medicine Certification exam, presuming they complete a field placement. The Policy and Practices in Global Health course will focus on the social, political, and economic context of common global health challenges with lectures from many guest speakers who are experts in their field. Residents will be blocked from other clinic responsibilities while taking these courses.
2. Round Table Dinners. Quarterly evening lectures by a guest speaker involved in Global Health are scheduled with dinner provided. These are opportunities to learn and to meet with other members of the GHLT.
3. Global Health Journal Club. A monthly, informal journal club with dinner occurs at the home of one of the GHLT leaders.
4. International Rounds. Monthly International Rounds occur as part of the Family Medicine didactic series on Tuesday afternoons. Attendance is welcomed but optional for Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residents due to scheduling.

GHLT members perform two month-long rotations in one of our target international sites in their second and third years of residency.

Our target international sites, located in Guatemala and Uganda, are ongoing partnerships for both clinical learning and research.

Alternative sites in underserved communities in the U.S. (such as the Indian Health Service) may also be considered.

During their time abroad residents identify needs in their international community and work on a project to answer questions or improve care related to that need. Ideally previous projects are stepping stones for future ones. Residents may choose instead to take part in larger, established projects at their site.

Family Medicine residents in the track maintain a continuity practice in the IFMC in addition to their regular continuity practice. This will begin in PGY-2, with one session per week and continue into PGY-3 with 1-2 sessions per week. Residents may also elect to do a one-month block elective, Health of Refugees and Vulnerable Populations

Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residents are given the unique opportunity to take the two-week rotation, Health of Refugees and Vulnerable Populations. This will include at least 2 sessions per week under the supervision of Dr. Hauck in the IFMC, and visits to some of the following: the International Rescue Committee Office, Health Department Refugee Program, UVa Traveler's Clinic, UVa HIV Clinic, and the Health Department's Sexually Transmitted Diseases Clinic. Other activities, such as home visits with CHIP workers, Legal Aid and others will be available.

1. Develop the knowledge, attitudes and skills to practice culturally competent medical care.
2. Learn about medical and psychosocial problems affecting refugees and international patients.
3. Collaborate with local agencies in caring for refugee patients, including the International Rescue Committee, Health Department, WIC, social workers and psychologists.
4. Learn the epidemiology and treatment of tropical diseases.
5. Become familiar with educational resources for tropical medicine and global health.
6. Learn U.S. and international laws and policies governing refugees, displaced persons, and immigrants.
7. Competently care for patients in a resource-poor country or setting within the U.S.
8. Identify community needs and develop a project to address them in a resource-poor country or setting.
9. Prepare a written report and oral presentation of this project at the conclusion of the residency.
10. Teach other residents, students and faculty the skills, knowledge and attitudes gained.

This is accomplished through didactics, engagement with our local immigrant and refugee populations, international clinical rotations and international research.

Please note that dates may change. Final details will be emailed to GHLT members. Journal Club and Pre-departure Workshop start times vary from 5:00 to 6:00 PM.

1. Thursday, August 15:  Journal Club - Urology
2. September (dates TBD): Ethics and Wellness Pre-departure Mandatory Workshop 
3. Thursday, October 17: Journal Club - Psychiatry 
4. Thursday, November 21: Journal Club - Pediatrics
5. Thursday, December 19: Journal Club - Emergency Medicine
6. Thursday, January 16: Journal Club - Radiology
7. Monday January 27 - Friday February 7: Global Health January Course - Global Health Policy and Practice
8. Wednesday, February 5: Resident Presentation Dinner
9. Thursday February 20: Journal Club - General Surgery
10. Thursday, March 20: Journal Club - Plastic Surgery
11. Thursday, April 10: Journal Club - Anesthesiology
12. Thursday, May 8: Journal Club - Internal Medicine
13. June TBD: Graduation dinner

1. Interviewing Comedrones (traditional Guatemalan birth attendants) to characterize the extent of their knowledge base especially regarding obstetrical emergencies
2. Diagnosing Giardia, Entamoeba histolytica and Cryptosporidium in the Guatemalan Highlands with use of ELISA
3. Estimating the prevalence of peripheral vascular disease in Mbarara, Uganda with the use of ankle brachial pressure indices
4. Measuring the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in the Mayan population around Lago Atitlan in Guatemala
5. Validating a Tuberculous Meningitis case definition in Mbarara, Uganda
6. Surveying the refugee relocation programs and access to health care for refugees in the state of Virginia
7. Evaluating the impact of community health workers in the rural patient population of Limopop Province, South Africa
8. Assessing and addressing childhood malnutrition in an isolated, rural population in Cambodia
9. Supporting the development of Radiology residency traning in Mbarara, Uganda
10. Outcomes of patients with severe sepsis after the first six hours of resuscitation, in Mbarara, Uganda

There are faculty across the University of Virginia interested in Global Health. Please see the Global Health Faculty Directory for a full listing.