My first two years living in Angola were in the midst of this nation’s civil war, which started in 1961 and escalated in 1974. A prototypical “Blood Diamonds War,” it was financed primarily by sale of oil and gems. A durable peace finally came in 2002. And what of these natural resources? Angola today […]
You struggled for years through undergrad and graduate school. You muscled past hundreds of exams and shouldered enormous financial debt. You endured in spite of taunting from your peers and self-doubt from within. You crossed the finish line with a fine education and credentials both hard won and well deserved. What career track is
You are serving at the international immigrant health clinic in Dallas. At the door of the waiting room a scene like the United Nations opens before you: Somalis, Iraqis, Hmong, Burmese – many wearing traditional dress. You call aloud the name of your next patient, “Sunita Bajracharya please.” A middle-aged lady gets to her
You are in Mozambique volunteering at a birthing center. The midwives are entirely African nationals who will have no backup once you depart. One evening reflecting on this fact you determine to vigilantly transfer your skills to permanent staff. At that moment a voice comes from the door, “The baby will not come down
You are in Burma teaching Helping Babies Breathe – a newborn resuscitation curriculum for resource-limited settings. Your venue is a Burmese national hospital with an assembly of excited nurses and midwives. But your presentation is suddenly interrupted by an urgent call from the postpartum floor: “We have a baby who is not breathing.”
What makes for effective medical education? In the clinical setting we often speak of, “See one. Do one. Teach one.” It’s learning via role modeling, active participation, and skill transfer. Enter the INMED International Medicine and Public Health Hybrid Courses… Just days ago we concluded the fifth round of these courses. Hours of lectures? Worse
It is human nature to step up to a challenge. What challenge will you choose? It is also human nature to defend. Whom will you defend? Most all of us in healthcare have dreamed of doing something bold. Why don’t we follow through? Here’s the reasons I hear most often: “I don’t know
“Theirs is unbearable pain: mothers and fathers recounting their helplessness to alleviate the hunger of their children – hunger often compounded by the rigors of malaria, breathlessness of pneumonia, and lethargy of prolonged malnutrition. I scramble to offer assistance, but there is no end to their need. The difficulty is knowing how to help
Like any number of us who oversee organizations, businesses or institutions, I grapple constantly with dreams and demands that far exceed my capacity to fulfill or to manage. And like many of my colleagues, I find some reassurance in regularly remembering just what is my role as CEO. In one phrase, the INMED
Well-meaning people continually inquire about the terminology associated with global health. Their inquiry is not just hair-splitting. Terminology may be subtlety different, and yet the meanings conveyed be profoundly divergent. And so consider these terms: global health, international health, international public health, and international medicine. In common usage, global health and international health