Global Health

Directors: Deepa Iyengar, MD, MPH

Administrative coordinator: Rebecca Mathews

McGovern Global Health Website: https://med.uth.edu/globalhealth/

Missions:

To add increased awareness of issues relating to global public health to the undergraduate medical curriculum.
To provide students with the opportunity to experience supervised clinical service in underserved areas, locally and abroad.
To enhance students’ awareness of the unique challenges associated with healthcare delivery in resource poor settings and learn tools to mitigate such challenges.
To prepare students to deal with patient populations from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds and to cultivate increased awareness of the importance of providing culturally competent clinical care that addresses socio-economic determinants of health.
To prepare future leaders in the area of global public health.

Maximum number of students/year: TBD

Student selection process:

Students must be in good academic standing at the time of selection and remain in good standing throughout the four-year curriculum. Students will be selected through an application process and by the Directors with input from student leaders. Selection will be based on an application describing commitment to global health, long-terms goals, and prior experience; foreign language proficiency is preferred but not required.

Timeline for student completion of concentration requirements:

First Year (MSI): March – students select and are accepted into the concentration

Spring Semester
- Attend 80% of dedicated monthly GHC lecture series (a combination of live and online power point slides)
  - Lecture Topics
    - Preparing for international elective
    - Overview of Global Health and Development – Dr Aibana
    - Public Health, Metrics and socio-economic determinants of health – Dr Liaw
    - Medical Volunteerism and Cultural competency – Dr Aibana
    - Human Rights and Social Justice – Dr Villareal
- Attend all journal club meetings, which will focus on current issues in global public health including but not limited to emerging diseases, diagnosis and management, original research, policy etc. Students will be expected to use journal club as one way of cultivating their own scholarly interests.
  - Students are expected to lead and facilitate at least one journal club meeting during first and second years
  - Responsibilities include selecting article for approval in advance and identifying faculty member to serve as co-facilitator
  - * one excused absence from journal club permitted per year*
- Attend Guest Expert lecture series (1 per semester) – GHC will host lecture series open to the entire medical school community; experts will be invited to discuss topics relevant to global public health.
  - Topics to be determined
- Attend at least one meeting with GHC directors to discuss program, develop scholarly project ideas, and identify/assign mentors – this is a mandatory requirement.
- By the end of Spring semester, students should have identified some topics of interest for capstone project
- Optional: overseas clinical selective during Spring Break (SIGHT or other organizations); all short-term trips can count for maximum of 25 hours towards clinical/public health hours requirements for the GHC.
Summer (MS1-MS2):
- Students can begin/continue work on their scholarly project either through summer research or clinical/public health experience as applicable.
- Students can also opt for separate clinical/public experience (locally or internationally) not related to a scholarly project
  - GHC Directors will provide list of potential opportunities
  - Students can independently identify sites for clinical/public experience but must obtain pre-approval from GHC directors
  - Clinical/public health experience during summer between MS1 and MS2 can count for maximum of 50 hours towards clinical/public health hours requirement for GHC
Second Year (MS2): Fall and Spring semesters
- Attend 80% of dedicated monthly GHC lecture series
  - Fall Semester
    - Global Burden of Disease and Globalization – Communicable Diseases (1- 2 lectures)
      - Infectious Diseases in a global city – Suma Manjunath
      - Various lectures/case study – Dr Iyengar
  - Spring Semester
    - Global Burden of Disease and Globalization – Non-communicable Diseases (1-2 lectures) – Dr Aibana
    - Global Health Delivery case study – Dr Aibana
- Attend all journal club meetings.
  - Students are expected to lead and facilitate at least one journal club meeting during first and second years (see MS1 requirement above for details)
  - *one excused absence from journal club permitted per year*
- Attend GHC Guest Expert lecture series
- Attend at least one meeting with GHC directors to discuss project progress and other issues related to the concentration
- Participate in a clinical/public health experience: minimum of 75 hours over the course of MS2 year in any of the approved clinic sites
  - students can pursue alternative clinical experience but will require pre-approval from GHC Directors
    - *students are responsible for making individual arrangements to attend the clinics and will be required to fill out verification form for clinical hours*
- To ensure students remain on track to complete required scholarly project, they must:
  - Schedule and attend at least one meeting per semester with mentor(s) to discuss and develop project ideas and update the GHC directors on their progress.
    - Students are responsible for ensuring mentorship agreement form is signed by student and mentor by September 30th of MS2 year; and submitted to administrative coordinator
    - Submit a scholarly project proposal with timeline of activities by February 28th of MS2 year
- Optional: overseas clinical selective during Spring Break (SIGHT or other organizations); all short-term trips can count for maximum of 25 hours towards clinical/public health hours requirements for the GHC.
Third Year (MS3): Fall and Spring Semesters
- Continue work on scholarly project
  - Submit brief progress report on scholarly project and revised timeline as appropriate by January 31st of MS3 year.
- To ensure students remain on track to complete required scholarly project, they must:
  - Schedule and attend at least one meeting per semester with mentor(s) to discuss and develop project ideas and update the GHC directors on their progress.
- Attend scheduled meetings at least twice a year (ideally one per each semester) with GHC directors to discuss project progress and other issues related to the concentration.
Fourth Year (MS4): Fall and Spring Semesters
- Attain minimum of 50 hours of clinical/public health experience in approved sites (locally or internationally) throughout the year
- Schedule and attend at least two meetings per semester with mentor(s)
- Finalize scholarly project
  - Required Deliverables prior to graduation
    - Abstract of completed project or work in progress must be submitted by early April of graduating year (exact date to be determined each year)
    - Presentation at McGovern Medical School’s Annual Symposium/Poster Session
    - Brief Powerpoint presentation summarizing capstone project
    - Detailed written report of project (or manuscript prepared for submission)
  - Optional Deliverables
    - Oral/Poster Presentations at local and national conferences
    - Preparation/submission of peer reviewed manuscript
- Optional: Four week clinical elective local or international at approved sites (count for maximum of 50 hours towards clinical/public health hours requirement for GHC).

Concentration requirements (didactic and experiential):

GHC Lectures (at least 80%)
Journal Clubs and invited lecture series
Meetings with GHC directors – at least once per semester
Meet with mentors – at least once per semester (MS2 to MS4)

Submit scholarly project ideas/proposal with timeline by February 28th in MS2 and January 31st in MS3 years
Minimum 125 hours of clinic/public health experience
Scholarly project, which will culminate in a presentation and detailed written report/manuscript.

Scholarly projects*

indicate the types of faculty-mentored student scholarly projects available to students (e.g., basic research, clinical research, public health analysis, curriculum development, literature review, etc.): clinical research, literature review, public health project/analysis, program development
indicate the procedure used to review and evaluate the students scholarly projects and outcomes: Reviewed by GHC directors and students’ mentors.
indicate strategies for scholarly product dissemination: Presentation at Annual Symposium/Poster Day

*a traditional student-authored manuscript describing his/her project and its outcome is required