The International Health track offers powerful, intensive opportunities to develop competencies in cultural diversity and community medicine. It is one of the only international health curricular tracks in the country and is for the resident who wants to enrich their education by helping change the health of populations in developing countries.
About the Track Director
Dr. James Sanders is a recognized international authority on forensic examination for survivors of torture and has served as an expert witness in multiple asylum hearings. He is regularly referred clients from the regional torture treatment center, the Marjorie Kovler Center. He has been honored with numberous awards for his service to the poor, recently receiving the President's Award for his work in the Republic of Georgia.
Your experience will be supported by a full curriculum where you will be immersed within the community, where health changes occur. Individuals’ health can be affected by the lack of vital public health services and infrastructure in their impoverished communities. Serving at the grassroots level, you will work to be a part of the community’s solutions.
The International Health Track provides opportunities to touch the lives of people who are in great need. They’ll touch your life, too. You’ll have the unique experience only an international track can provide for a greater appreciation of the individual patient within the larger picture.
Where?
The track takes advantage of each learner's particular skill sets and interests. Combined with Dr. Sander's vast network of worldwide contacts there are ample global experiences from which the residents learn. In the past two years our residents have gone to Malawi, India/Tibet, Belize and Haiti.
Objectives
Residents participating in this track will be able to:
- Care for patients in a developing country and learn about the interplay of health, disease, and poverty
- Understand community-oriented primary care
- Use epidemiologic skills to assess and track the health indices of a community including research design, implementation and evaluation
- Develop data analysis and presentation skills
- Gain grant writing skills
- Advocate for marginalized and vulnerable populations
Curricular Components
For PGY-2 and PGY-3
- One month Community/Ambulatory Medicine tailored to areas of personal interest, with particular attention to cultural competency, basic bio-statistics, epidemiology, and the theory and practice of community medicine.
- An away elective, where you will participate in another longitudinal health project in a less developed country, or develop your own international elective experience.
You may also begin work on an MPH.
Away rotations are subject to MCWAH and Columbia St. Mary's requirements and approval. Rotations may be split into smaller fragments, such as two week blocks to accommodate other residency concerns.
For more information, contact:
Jim Sanders, MD, MPH
Columbia St. Mary’s Family Practice
1121 E. North Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53212
jsanders@mcw.edu
(414) 267-6502 Office
Toll free: (866) 540-4760
(414) 267-3892 Fax
www.family.mcw.edu/CSM
