Vanderbilt Med-Peds and International Health Elective Experiences
Dr. Ashley Karpinos with a pediatric patient
Nalerigu, Northern Ghana
Introduction
On the following page, we hope to provide you with some history about why our program feels international health education is important. We also want to show you some photos and stories of experiences our residents and faculty have had in other countries. We also hope to provide you with some initial contact information if you are seeking to set up an international experience for yourself as a student, resident or faculty member.
Recent Statistics on Global Health Needs
In the past decade there has been a dramatic surge in the global awareness of and response to the overwhelming health needs among the poorest of the poor. The adoption of the Millennium Development Goals by the United Nations (a link to the UN site: https://medicine.mc.vanderbilt.edu/www.un.org/millenniumgoals/) was a remarkable display of multinational solidarity in recognizing the most critical factors contributing to global poverty and disease. In 2003, the United States took a lead in the global fight against HIV/AIDS when the president signed the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) (a link to PEPFAR: https://medicine.mc.vanderbilt.edu/www.pepfar.gov), thus pledging $15 billion dollars towards treating, preventing, and caring for people with HIV/AIDS in the 15 most severely afflicted nations of the world. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation alone contributes approximately $800 million dollars a year towards global health concerns. Yet the world's poorest people continue to sink deeper into poverty (1 billion people currently live on less than $1 a day). Though great strides have been made in some areas of global health, 2.8 billion people have no access to basic sanitation, mortality rates are increasing in many of the world's poorest areas, and approximately 40 million people are currently living with HIV/AIDS.
While there will always remain a very real need for long term financial commitments in the addressing issues of global health, in the past few years there has been increasing realization that the most pressing problems revolve around a severe human resources crisis. An Institue of Medicine (IOM) report in 2005 (link to the IOM report: http://www.iom.edu/CMS/3783/22871/26494.aspx ) stated that "the dearth of qualified health care professionals in most low-income countries is the single most important constraint faced in responding to health care needs" (IOM 2005: Healers Abroad). Low wages, stressful working conditions, lives lost due to HIV/AIDS, and "brain drain" have all decreased the ranks of health workers in many countries, particularly in sub-saharan Africa.
Vanderbilt Med-Peds recognizes the great importance of being involved in global health from both a service and service learning standpoint. We also recognize that there is currently more interest on the part of medical students and residents in global health than ever before. We are committed to supporting our residents our students, and offering contact information for residents and students elsewhere, who desire to be involved with international medicine and public health during their training.
Some photos and stories from our residents who have travelled abroad
Ben Martel, M.D.
Experiences in Tanzania April 2007
Children in Mwansa, Tanania
waiting for clinic to start
During my third year of residency I spent two months in a teaching hospital in Tanzania with Dr. Rob Peck, a former Vanderbilt medical student now working as a full-time faculty member as part of a twinning collaboration between Weill Cornell Medical College and Bugando Medical Centre in Mwanza, Tanzania. It was a difficult and revealing time during which I saw first-hand the 
difficulties that many developing nations face in confronting a growing burden of sick patients in the context of insufficient numbers of health workers. It was rewarding to have a skill set to offer not only in clinical rounds but also in helping to give lectures to medical students. I found the patients, students, nurses, physicians, and health workers I came to know to be an incredible source of encouragement to me and the experience helped me to remember again why I chose to medicine in the first place.- Ben Martel, M.D. Med-Peds resident 2005-09
Hospital Teaching Rounds
in Mwansa, Tanzania
Contact information for Ben's trip:
Dr. Rob Peck:
landrpeck@gmail.com
Ashley Karpinos, M.D.
Nalerigu, Northern Ghana
Spring 2007
I spent 3 weeks working at the Baptist Medical Center in Nalerigu, Ghana. Everyday, we made rounds on the pediatrics ward in the hospital and then saw both kids and adults at the walk-in clinic. The waiting room was packed full everday, and a majority of those seeking care had malaria. - Ashley Karpinos, M.D., Med-Peds Resident 2007-2011
The clinic where Ashley worked in Nalerigu, Northern Ghana
Dr. Karpinos assessing a patient cervical
lymphadenopathy in clinic.
Contact Information for Dr. Karpinos' Trip:
Dr. Earl Hewitt
Health Ministry Team
Nalerigu, Ghana
E-mail contact: mamprusi_hmt@yahoo.com
Michael Bowen, M.D.
Diospi Suyana Hospital
Curahuasi, Peru
April 2009
Drs. Michael Bowen (senior resident 2008-09) and Alex Brunner
(med-peds graduate 2005- now faculty in Peru) at the
Hospital Diospi Suyana getting ready for a day of work together.
Quechua children bring goats to clinic!
A Quechua women with an eye problem,
waiting for clinic to start.
Mike and Lizza Bowen spending some time off
hiking the Inca trail to Machu Pichu.
Drs. Alex and Laura Brunner with their daughters
at their home in Peru. Their youngest daughter, Sofia,
was born while the Bowens were with them!
Contact for Drs. Brunner (Alex in med-peds and Laura in pediatrics) in Peru:
www.alexandlaurainperu.wordpress.com
(page created 7/2/09- more updates with other trips, photos, and contacts coming soon!)