See great photos of our Honduras brigades at this photo shop.
Global Health Track (GHT)
& Refugee Health Care
The Department of Family Medicine of the University of Rochester has created a Global Health Track (GHT) for interested residents. This exciting new program started in June 2003. Just as we have an intensive OB track, two or more interested residents per class can be included in the Global Health Track.
"We all work for health."
Our department began traveling twice a year to Honduras in October 2003. We are one of the four other Family Medicine departments who collaborate with the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Cincinnati and their nonprofit organization, Shoulder to Shoulder. One of the principle tenets of Shoulder to Shoulder is for each Family Medicine department to have a longitudinal relationship with a specific village in Honduras and to work together to improve the health status of that village. We were successful in identifying a town, San José de Sierra, in Southwestern Honduras, as our GHT project site. San José is actually a group of eight smaller villages with a total of approximately 2,000 people. There is no running water, no electricity, and no clinic there, but we still manage to see over 100 patients per day when we are there, as well as working on many public health initiatives. We have met with town officials and reached an agreement to collaborate to improve the health for residents of San José and surrounding villages.
Please take a look at the reports from our trips. And we are excited to be able to offer photographs from Honduras on our new fund-raising website, SanJosePartners.org. Please browse the Honduras and other pictures on display and take advantage of our 3-for-2 offer of professionally printed photos.
Honduran patients waiting to see the doctor.
The people here are motivated to improve their health. They have a functioning governmental and leadership infrastructure. This means public health interventions have a much greater chance of success and longterm sustainability. We're very excited to have such a great clinical and public health site in which to work.
Click here to view a video from the
American Academy of Family Physicians
Refugee health
Closely related to Global Health education is the care of newly arrived refugees in the U.S. Hundreds of refugees receive their health care from the two clinical sites of the Department. Refugee patients come from at least 18 different countries from around the world. Residents learn much about cultural competency while providing much-needed services to very troubled and ill refugees. The vast majority of refugees come from developing countries. The exposure to refugees allows residents to experience the health problems common in the Third World while in the environment of this culture.
Objective
To prepare highly motivated and accomplished residents to care for underserved populations anywhere in the world.
Therapeutic play for the doctor and the patients.
Program Highlights
- Two or more interested residents per class are selected to enter the GHT. For 2006-2007, we have eleven residents participating.
- Didactic training occurs in the US to prepare residents before travel to underserved international sites.
- GHT residents spend one month during their second year and one month during their third year working in underserved settings in developing countries.
- GHT residents can choose to work in the approved overseas sites or can choose to create their own overseas elective experience.
- Honduras is currently the primary overseas site.
- Travel expenses are covered by the residency for times spent overseas.
- Department faculty teach the didactic sessions as well as travel overseas with residents.
- GHT training sites are available to residents who want to participate in a Global Health experience but do not wish to commit to the full track.
The following documents are important treatises on global health and are provided to help us understand what the countries and people of the world think are important issues to address for the health of all:
Declaration of Alma Ata – International Conference on Primary Health Care, 1978
United Nations Millennium Declaration, 2000
People’s Charter for Health, People’s Health Movement
Global Health Fact Sheet
Presentation at AAFP 2007 National Conference for Residents and Students
The Shoulder to Shoulder Model — Channeling Medical Volunteerism toward Sustainable Health Change
Global Health Book Club
Any interested residents, faculty, and staff can participate in the Global Health Book Club, which meets four to five times a year to discuss books read as a group. For a summary of any of the following GHBC selections, click on the title:
- Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
- Mountains beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
- Don't Be Afraid, Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart by Elvia Alvarado
- In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
- The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman
- We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families by Philip Gourevitch
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins
- White Man's Grave by Richard Dooling
- Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared M. Diamond
- The Art of Crossing Cultures by Craig Storti
- The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time by Jeffrey Sachs
- Acts of Faith by Philip Caputo
- Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker
- Just and Lasting Change: When Communities Own Their Futures by Daniel and Carl E. Taylor
- Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario
- Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
For those interested in learning more about the global health efforts of other organizations, we recommend the following websites:
The Global Health Education Consortium is a consortium of faculty and health care educators dedicated to global health education in North American health professions schools and residency programs.
The Global Health Council is the world's largest membership alliance dedicated to saving lives by improving health throughout the world.
Rethinking International Health is a blended learning course at Stanford University that enables students to identify and critically evaluate the issues and players that shape international health today, in order to form a roadmap for thoughtful and responsible action.