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Leadership

Director:  Sylvia Becker-Dreps, MD, MPH

Assistant Director:  Heidi White, MIS

Overview and Application Process

Importance of this Curriculum

Global health is increasingly recognized as an important component of medical education. Physicians are faced with a diverse array of healthcare challenges influenced by the expanding world. There is a growing need for global knowledge related to inequities in health, globalization of care, and the interconnectedness of the world. This necessity, in combination with the increasing interest and involvement in global health from students and faculty alike, underscores the importance of incorporating and supporting global health that is ethically sound and educationally appropriate.

Curriculum

The purpose of the Scholarly Concentration in Global Health is to train globally-minded physicians in the practice, research, and study of health and its determinants with the goal of equipping students to improve health equity worldwide through robust integration of global health throughout their undergraduate medical training. This concentration is designed to provide students with a more thorough experience in global health, aiding in identifying and experiencing global health in various contexts in order to demonstrate the breadth of the diverse ways in which one can engage in global health practice.

Goals

Overall Goal: Train globally-minded physicians by providing integrated global health education across all stages of medical school (foundation, application and integration) and facilitating the attainment of meeting the specified competencies. Integrated into this will be global health related content through core materials, experiential learning, mentorship by a UNC faculty involved in global health, a scholarly project and the development of a student portfolio of global health engagement.

Requirements

No minimum requirements to apply, will be accepting students during the first year of foundation phase only. A maximum of five students per year will be accepted through a competitive application process in the fall of the MS1 year with Scholarly concentration activities to begin in the spring of MS1 year.

Program Structure and Highlights

Foundation Phase

  • Attend at least two global health lectures or events per semester (six total in Foundation phase). A list of potential events, including the OGHE Global Health Forum, IGHID Friday AM conference series, UNC School of Public Health lectures and other local events can be found on the OGHE website under resources.
  • Meet with assigned UNC SOM global health mentor at least twice in Foundation phase to discuss focus of global health interests, needed support and plans for engagement.
  • Meet with global health librarian to discuss initial ideas for scholarly concentration project or paper and begin literature review.
  • Participate in a global health related elective or research project between MS1 and MS2 years of at least 4 weeks duration.
  • Complete Foundations of Global Health Elective (GLBE 201/401) in either Foundation or Individualization phase.
  • Complete a total 20 hours of community service related to vulnerable populations and global health (list of appropriate venues will be provided, or student may request approval for a given experience).

Application Phase

  • Attend at least two global health lectures or events per semester (four total during the Application phase).
  • Complete three case reports during Application phase (template posted on SCP in GH sakai site).  Cases may include issues of travel health, foreign-born individuals, or spread of illnesses/disease processes due to globalization.
  • Meet with fellow global health SCP students and OGHE faculty during Intensive Days as scheduled (three times during the Application phase) to review case studies and in pertinent topics from key current global health articles. Planning for scholarly projects will also be reviewed.
  • Continue to meet with assigned global health mentor (at least twice) to develop plans for scholarly product
  • During community based longitudinal care course, commit to using four half days of self-directed learning time in a setting related to global health. This may include (but not limited to): Occupational health Services pre-departure clinic, Campus Health Travel Clinic, Care of Migrant Farmworkers, Refugees, or through a practice serving immigrant populations.

For MD/PhD, MPH or LOA years

  • Attend one global health lecture or event every 6 months
  • Meet annually with SCP mentor and OGHE liaison to check in
  • Provide an annual update on PhD research progress to OGHE (and assumption is that PhD research topic is related to global health)
  • Complete one case report each year identifying/describing a clinical situation from longitudinal clinical experience that is connected to global health (use clinical case format on sakai)

Individualization Phase

  • Attend at least two global health lectures or events per semester (four total during the Individualization phase).
  • Complete a second four-week elective (clinical, research or community based) in a global situation or domestic situation related to global health (e.g. migrant farmworkers, refugee health). Refer to OGHE website for listings of courses. If Foundations in Global Health course not completed during Foundation phase, must complete during Individualization phase in conjunction with this elective.
  • Continue to meet with assigned global health faculty mentor to finalize plans for final project and plans for presentation or submission of project
  • Continue with community service related to vulnerable populations and global health; completing a total of 10 additional hours during the Individualization phase.
  • Meet with OGHE leadership and career advisor to discuss and describe impact of completing Scholarly Concentration in Global Health in residency application process.

Final Project

Scholarly concentration participants will be required to complete a final project which will be included in their student portfolio. The end-product will be a paper, poster or oral presentation and will ideally also be submitted to local, regional, or national society for scholarly presentation as well as within UNC.

Spring Symposium

2022 Presentation Agenda

2023 Presentation Agenda

2024 Presentation Agenda