General Information
Location: International Location.
Preceptor: Melanie A. Fisher, M.D., M.Sc. Director, Global Health Program
Duration: One Month
Offered: Selected months, usually February and April—other months with permission.
Maximum Enrollment: 20 Students
Status: Elective
Objectives:
- To provide fourth year medical students with experience in the practice of medicine in an international setting.
- To introduce medical students to important global health issues.
- To prepare students for international travel. Students taking this elective will spend one month in a WVU-affiliated overseas hospital or clinic. Sites currently include Barbuda, Honduras, People’s Republic of China, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Uganda, Italy, Ghana, and India. All students taking the elective are encouraged to apply for the Travel Awards offered by WVU’s global Health Program. Selections for the Travel Awards are made by a faculty review panel. Medical faculty serve as preceptors at the site during the month rotation. Any student taking the elective must receive approval from the Office of Student Services.
Methods to Achieve Objectives:
The student will attend clinics/and/or hospital rounds at the site, as well as small group teaching sessions. To prepare for their elective abroad, students are required to do the following:
- Attend a mandatory “mini-course” (usually 2-3 hours long) at WVU, Morgantown early in their fourth year to cover important aspects of global health and travel medicine.
- Write a 2-3 page paper on a health problem in the country to which they will travel.
- Attend a mandatory meeting with the GHP Director and Program Coordinator the month prior to their departure.
- Visit University Health Service Travel Clinic (Morgantown Campus) at least once prior to travel.
Examination Procedures and Evaluation Criteria:
Daily observation at the site by the faculty mentor; short paper on an international topic (e.g., Disease prevention, nutrition and infectious diseases, immunization practices and strategies).
On the First Day of the Rotation Report To: Site to be pre-arranged.
Remember, if you are interested in an overseas elective, even if you do not think you will have funds to do this elective, please apply anyway. We will do our best to help you find funding. An overseas experience will be one you will not forget or regret.
Current Rotations for 2010-2011
Barbuda
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(February) – 2 to 4 weeks
Contact: Dr. Lee Smith
This is a Primary Care/Emergency Medicine elective in Barbuda. Dr. Lee Smith in our ED is the coordinator for this elective. Airfare could cost anywhere from $410-$750. Lodging is free in a big house on the beach. Meals would cost approx $100-$200 for the entire month and this is an estimate as you would purchase food from the local grocery store. There is a cost for a ferry or air fee of approx $40 for the initial arrival from Antigua to Barbuda and also for any outing back to Antigua on one weekend for sightseeing. This outing is an opportunity for you to see the culture and the only place to buy souvenirs. If you went to Antigua to sightsee on a weekend the approx cost would be $100 for hotel fee plus your meals at restaurants, etc.
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Ghana
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(April) – 4 weeks
Contacts: Dr. Michelle Nuss, Dr. Thomas Adamski, and Dr. Hollynn Larrabee
Baptist Medical Centre in Nalerigu, Ghana is a 125-bed mission hospital located in a rural ("bush") area of northeastern Ghana. Even though it is a "bush hospital", it is the main referral center for patients all over northern Ghana (and the surrounding countries). Lots of exposure to pediatrics, obstetrics, surgery, and whatever else comes in the door.
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Guatemala
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 (February) – 4 weeks
Contacts: Dr. Rosemarie Cannerella and Dr. Maggie Jaynes
San Lucas is located about 80 miles west of Guatemala City at an elevation of 5200 feet. The days are warm (75-80°). Early morning, late afternoon and nights are cool sometimes going down to about 45°. The people of Guatemala are mostly of Indian ancestry but about 40% of the population is Latino. The official language is Spanish but many people speak only the Mayan Indian dialect.
The patients who attend the clinic are mainly children and women, occasionally men. A couple times a week students and faculty will visit other rural clinics.
San Lucas Toliman has various other projects with their Volunteer Program. Students are encouraged to get involved in these projects including reforestation, gardening, coffee processing, construction, water management, school, and adult literacy courses.
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Honduras
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(1 week October or April)
Contact: Dr. Melanie Fisher
 Ocote Paulino is a small town in northwestern Honduras. WVU is starting a new clinic in this town with the help of the University of Pittsburgh and an organization called “Shoulder to Shoulder”. The Honduran people, through their local Health Committee, are collaborating as well. This is a rural area where the people have had very limited health care. Patients seen at the clinic include children of all ages with respiratory, GI, nutritional and many other problems, and adults with both acute and chronic illnesses. We also do home visits, as needed. Spanish is helpful but translators will be there to help the health care team. Students would interview, examine, diagnose and treat patients under the supervision of WVU physicians and work as park of the team with nurses and pharmacists.
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India
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(February) – 4 weeks
Contact: Dr. C. Vasudevan
The village is called Thenkarai, which is 15 miles from the city called Madurai in the state of Tamil Nadu in South India. Approximate round trip airfare will be about $1600.00. The clinic in the village is primary care clinic and should be able to arrange Outpatient clinic visits at a missionary hospital in Madurai. Dr. Vasudevan will take care of accommodation. Students interested can get more information about Madurai on www.madurai.com & Pictures of Thenkarai Village at www.thenkarai.blogspot.com.
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Italy
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 April) – 4 weeks
Contact: Dr. Renee Moore
This is a small mountain town in southern Italy. We were exposed to the ins and outs of a socialized medicine state as well as various sites in which this took place.
Our first day was spent with introductions of some of the main administrative physicians and staff at the hospital as well as a tour of the facilities. Each subsequent day, we were met or picked up by a representative from the hospital and taken to various places throughout the city. While in the hospital, we had the opportunity to view multiple areas including Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, Labor and Delivery. We saw the distinction they made between inpatients and outpatients and how different situations were handled. We discussed the similarities and differences between our cultures and how that contributed to the way health care was delivered. We also were invited to view the Surgery suite. Some examples of the types of cases seen included vascular, C-sections and hernia repairs. In addition, we visited some local private practitioners and ancillary health facilities throughout the town.
In all cases, the students and I felt very welcomed and received a warm greeting from not only the physicians, nurses and staff, but from the patients as well. They were excited and honored to have medical personnel from a large American university to visit and see what things were like in their town.
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Sierra Leone
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Rotation Schedule: ( January ) – 4 weeks
 European contacts with Sierra Leone were among the first in West Africa. In 1652, the first slaves in North America were brought from Sierra Leone to the Sea Islands off the coast of the southern United States. During the 1700s there was a thriving trade bringing slaves from Sierra Leone to the plantations of South Carolina and Georgia where their rice-farming skills made them particularly valuable.
In 1787 the British helped 400 freed slaves from the United States, Nova Scotia, and Great Britain return to Sierra Leone to settle in what they called the "Province of Freedom." Disease and hostility from the indigenous people nearly eliminated the first group of returnees. This settlement was joined by other groups of freed slaves and soon became known as Freetown. In 1792, Freetown became one of Britain's first colonies in West Africa.
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