A program to enrich the experience of young health care professionals by exposing them to a unique experience in rural India.
In many parts of the world, including rural India access to modern healthcare is severely limited. Many dedicated healthcare professionals have however learned to improvise and make best use of scarce resources to provide critical services to the underprivileged. This environment will have a salutary effect in providing perspective to young physicians training in the prosperous developed countries whose experience is that of a relatively high cost and high tech healthcare system.
The best physicians are those who have a broad education in the life sciences and this would obviously be enriched by exposure to different cultural experiences. Reaching out to clients of different cultures will improve a physician ability to appreciate diversity and be more empathetic. It is also expected that this experience will provide an opportunity to see a variety of medical problems and illnesses not always seen in traditional western training. Interaction with western trained physicians should promote an exchange of ideas that may enhance the quality of healthcare in India. Many of the lessons learnt in serving the underprivileged may provide the seed for innovations applicable to under served areas of the USA and perhaps the rest of the world.
The global health rotation at MediCiti institute of Medical sciences has been developed with a vision of providing the student scholar a perspective of medical care in rural/resource-limited setting. The experiences gained by the exchange scholar can help enrich his/her perspective of clinical medicine.
Duration : Minimum of 4 weeks without vacation
Qualification/Eligibility requirements:
A. Premed students/ Undergraduates interested in a career in the Health Sciences
B. Medical students/ MPH Students
C.Residents/Fellows
Students :
MediCiti Institute of Medical Sciences is an accredited medical school affiliated to the KNRUHS with a 720-bed multispeciality hospital attached. Students interested in pursuing a career in the health sciences will benefit from the patient diversity to which the hospital caters. There are ample opportunities for learning about various medical conditions, especially infectious diseases in rural India. It gives the student scholar a perspective of diseases in a tropical country especially in the rural/resource-limited setting. On an average about 1200-1300 outpatients are served daily by care provided by the hospital at affordable, subsidized rates. Rotations can be tailored as per the interests of the student scholar. Students also participate in noon conferences.
I Interested students have opportunities to participate in fieldwork, such as data collection for the ongoing projects in SHARE MediCiti Institute of medical sciences CATCH, REACH, and ICDS programs. (Details available on theshareindia.org) Students interested in HIV related work can also participate in activities of APAIDSCON such as organizing Red Ribbon Clubs, creating HIV/AIDS awareness programs; activities of the positive network. They can visit the villages with the team and interact with the local population. This also gives the student scholars an opportunity to learn about the socioeconomic conditions of people in rural India.
Residents/Fellows:
Unlike developed countries like the United States, medical care in rural India is very limited. Resident scholars can benefit from the experiences gained by working in a rural environment in a developing country. This will help them gain an insight into medical care in resource-limited settings. Rotations can be structured according to the interest of the resident scholar. Residents can rotate through various clinical departments of their interest. For residents interested in pursuing Primary Care /Family Practice, rotations can be structured to involve multiple departments with special emphasis on outpatient care such as Dept of medicine, women and child health, skin & casualty .The MICU has patient diversity, rotating here would enrich overall clinical experience. Residents who are interested in HIV medicine and I.D fellows can attend the weekly I.D clinics. Case presentations are done at noon conferences. Overall, the experience gained here can be applied in part to rural settings in the US.