College of Medicine

Student Opportunities

Global Health Flex Track

Second-year medical students in the Global Health Track take a deep dive into global health topics, participate in a field study and apply their learning in scholarly projects that focus on health outcomes around the globe and in South Carolina. Explore

 

Clinical Rotations

Medical students have several options for global health clinical electives in their fourth year. Students are eligible to apply for the global health travel scholarships that the college provides for rotations in the fourth year. To learn more about these opportunities, contact Christine Talbott Bond.

 Students and medical professionals pose for a photo inside a Tanzanian hospital. Three MUSC Medical students pose for a photo in Haiti.

 

MDCOR*849 - Global Health Elective in Tanzania

This four-week clinical elective is in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and the program is overseen by MUSC Center for Global Health and MUSC Cardiology. Students rotate between Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), Muhimbili National Hospital, and Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute (JKCI) and will participate in the care of patients, including daily inpatient ward rounds, outpatient clinics, ICU, and emergency management of patients. At JKCI, the primary focus will be learning about the diagnosis and management of cardiac disease in Tanzania. Students will learn to rely on clinical skills and judgment in addition to the technology available in that setting and participate in hospital-wide didactic teaching sessions, conferences, and case presentations. 

Three students stand in front of a hospital in Dar.

During this elective, students will become familiar with a wide spectrum of diseases, including those not commonly seen in the US such as malaria, typhoid, and rheumatic heart disease. Students will be able to participate in a rural outreach clinic in Kisarawe where MUSC and MUHAS have an NIH-funded field site focused on large-scale HIV community-based prevention and care programs, including integration of screening for non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension with HIV testing.

MDCOR*843 - Virtual Global Health Elective with Child Family Healthcare International (CFHI)

The CFHI Virtual Global Health Elective offers 4th-year medical students an opportunity to build competencies in Global Health, inter-professionalism, and cross-cultural care. Global health involves multiple disciplines within and beyond the health sciences, is a synthesis of population-based prevention with individual-level clinical care, promotes interdisciplinary collaboration, and emphasizes transnational health issues and determinants. This elective develops a diverse range of competencies, including those relevant to low resource clinical care, population health, interdisciplinary collaboration, global burden of disease, evidence-based community health, social determinants of health, and cross-cultural effectiveness.

MDCOR*844 - Global Health Elective (option to choose from 40 sites in 11 countries)

This elective is offered in collaboration with MUSC Center for Global Health and Child Family Health International, which provides community-based global health education programs. Students may participate in 2- or 4-week clinical electives in one of 11 countries, including Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Ghana, India, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. Electives provide first-hand experiences alongside local physicians and public health experts and combine exposure to clinical practices, public health, social services, social determinants of health, and local culture. Electives are tailored to each student's interests to further the student's understanding of health care and development in communities that are struck by poverty, resource limitations, and a multitude of challenges leading to high burdens of illness, death, and reduced quality of life. During their elective, students will become familiar with the disease profiles and public health challenges and experience cultural differences in care delivery in terms of healthcare systems and resource allocation.

MDCOR*847 - Global Health in Uganda

This four-week elective is at Masindi-Kitara Medical Center, operated by OneWorld Health, in Masindi, Uganda. Students will interact with patients and learn how to perform a focused history and physical exam in a low-resource setting, working closely with the local attending to learn how to treat and manage many various illnesses and injuries including tropical diseases. Students will gain exposure to ordering appropriate diagnostic tests and formulating a differential diagnosis while focusing on the many limitations of medical care in a low-resource setting. The student will observe Emergency and Urgent care, inpatient care, outpatient clinical care, OB/GYN care, and surgical care and will have the opportunity to participate in laboratory diagnostics as well as ultrasound performance and interpretation.

MDCOR*846 - Global Health in Nicaragua

This four-week clinical elective is at the Nicaragua Medical Center, in El-Viejo, Nicaragua, and operated by OneWorld Health. Students will have clinical shifts in the outpatient, urgent care, and emergency medicine settings in El-Viejo, Nicaragua as well as the Emergency Department of the University Medical Center in Leon, Nicaragua. Students will shadow physicians in Chinandega, Nicaragua, and observe how to order appropriate diagnostic tests and formulate a differential diagnosis while adapting to the many limitations encountered in medical care in the developing world. The student will work closely with the attending on duty and learn how to treat and manage various illnesses and injuries and have the opportunity to participate in laboratory diagnostics as well as ultrasound performance and interpretation.

Contact the College of Medicine for information regarding global programs.