Series promotes global health, experiencesby Cindy AbolePublic Relations Health professionals in training have more exposure to understanding global health issues and dealing with cultural issues than ever before because of a new program offered to MUSC students. On Oct. 7, the International Health and Tropical Medicine seminar series kickedoff with a pair of informative presentations on global maternal child health care and health and human rights. This was the first of three seminars scheduled for this fall. The seminar speakers featured USC’s Sudha Xirasagar, Ph.D., research assistant professor, Department of Health Services Policy and Management at the Arnold School of Public Health and fourth-year College of Medicine student Ricky Y. Choi, who recently completed his master's in public health at Harvard University. The idea of formally coordinating an interdisciplinary health education program originated from MUSC pediatrician and alumnus Andrea Summer, M.D. Just a few years ago, Summer was a pediatrician in a successful practice in Columbia. Following her experience on a short-term international medical mission trip to Madagascar in 1998, Summer experienced an epiphany of the heart that would alter her career course in caring for others. Like other medical volunteers before her, she came away from that experience transformed—awakened to a keener sense of responsibility towards global health issues and health inequities. She yearned to expand her interests by cultivating other activities and resources that would place her in a more active role in international health education. “My volunteer trips to Madagascar and other areas helped me open my eyes to a different world that focused on other people’s needs, global health, poverty and other issues,” Summer said. “I saw first hand how the power of interaction with other cultures can affect attitudes and promote change.” She conferred with general pediatrics director J. Routt Reigart, M.D., who had advised her to seek additional training and credentials within her specialty. In 2002, she completed a two-year academic pediatric fellowship within the Division of General Pediatrics and recently earned her master's in clinical research in May. She joined the division under Reigart with the intent of assessing the university’s interest and current level of collaboration towards international health education. “Students are beginning to understand the importance of the international health arena,” said Reigart. “By learning and becoming involved they share a growing understanding in the aspects of worldwide medical care and the many challenges they’ll eventually encounter in clinical practice.” Summer began evaluating each college’s educational programs and experiences offered to students and residents that relate to global health issues. Next, she initiated meetings with staff and faculty from each of the six colleges and related departments about the current plan and activities that can be planned, operating with limited resources. Her collaboration resulted in the formation of a 14-member, campuswide International Health Committee. Their findings suggested the need for coordinated interdisciplinary educational program that would include seminars, speakers and eventually expand to accredited international health experiences and activities abroad. “I’ve seen how being involved in medical mission activities can change students, their perspectives and opinions, even their career paths in either becoming involved in global public health issues or working with underserved populations within communities in the United States,” Summer said. Last spring, she organized a seminar series on topics in International Health and Tropical Medicine. She received funding from a grant through the Sustainable University Initiative and has been able to bring in speakers from other universities with expertise in international public health and tropical diseases. This fall, she is working with co-faculty coordinator Jerry Blackwell, DHA, assistant professor, Department of Health Administration and Policy, to develop the seminar series into a course so that students can receive elective credit. Anyone is welcome to attend the series, which is organized into eight seminars (four per semester) and features core lectures on a global health, travel medicine or tropical disease process topic, discussion of clinical cases and shared experiences in developing countries. “It’s obvious that we live in a time of great challenges with diversity because of globalization and the nation’s growing immigrant population,” Summer said. “There are many positive results that have come from globalization, but a more diverse and mobile population facilitates the spread of microorganisms, placing our own population at risk for infections once considered exotic or rare.” Just recently, Summer completed an eight-week diploma course in clinical tropical medicine and parasitology at the University of West Virginia. She is now eligible to take the certifying exam offered by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. “Our students, residents and faculty are participating in overseas mission trips in large numbers. But with awareness of how the majority of the world lives comes responsibility,” Summer said. “The health needs of the world are enormous and extremely complex. When we par-ticipate in repeated trips to developing countries, we are remiss if we do not undergo formal education in international health and tropical medicine so that we understand the complex public health issues and can appropriately expand the differential diagnosis when treating patients to provide quality care.” Summer believes that as an academic institution, MUSC has an obligation to objectively evaluate what is done for medical student volunteers in developing countries in terms of efficacy and sustainability. The best way to achieve a positive long-term impact is to form partnerships with host countries and incorporate a teaching component into every short-term mission trip. Summer and Blackwell hope to explore other health issues in the seminars including HIV/AIDS, work with non-religious international health agencies; emerging infectious diseases, plus cultural and alternative medicine. They envision this program will open up opportunities to coordinate with USC’s Schools of Public Health and Medicine. In addition to this program, Summer also plans to work in the MUSC Travel Clinic, which is overseen by Infectious Disease Division director Robert Cantey, M.D. Located in Rutledge Tower, the clinic assists people who are traveling abroad by providing services from travel health counseling and recommendations, prescriptions and special medical needs, immunizations, to evaluations and treatments. MUSC International Health Committee
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