I will be spending two month abroad this year working at global health sites:
SELIAN LUTHERAN HOSPITAL (TANZANIA)
- 1 month working at the Selian Lutheran Hospital, a government hospital in Arusha, Tanzania. This is an established global health site, and we have a bidirectional partnership between University of Minnesota and Selian with residents travelling both ways multiple times each year.
- I hope to :
- Train and learn how to practice in a more resource limited setting.
- Conduct a needs assessment : particularly targeting the feeding clinic and NICU.
- Prepare a newborn examination lecture series (including images of babies observed during this rotation) and train local registers on common newborn findings.
ST JOHNS MEDICAL COLLEGE (INDIA)
- 1 month spent in St Johns Medical College, a semi private hospital in Bangalore, India.
I hope to :
- Obtain hands on experience of management of infectious disease seen in tropical countries. Particularly dengue, malaria , tuberculosis and leprosy which are not commonly seen in USA.
SELIAN LUTHERAN HOSPITAL (TANZANIA)
AIM: Given this a established training site, often with our residents (multiple) spending a total of 6-7 months on site the goal is to conduct a needs assessment and initiate the project. This will then be carried forward by future UMN residents. We have discussed this as a group and there are 5 more residents who will be travelling over the next 6 months who will be able to continue the project.
Our goal :
- Establish protocols for treatment of common ailments seen based on resources available. Areas targeted :
- Feeding Clinic : I will conduct a needs assessment and then work with professors on site to help develop a protocol for management of Protein Energy Malnutrition. Goal is to adapt local formula and foods to help ensure compliance and improve outcomes.
- NICU : Needs assessment. And then work with professors on site to establish protocol for commonly seen illness. Based on communication from faculty on site it possible that this may be hypoglycemia, hyperbilirubinemia
- When I contacted the site to identify needs and how I could add value during my month, faculty mentioned that registrars are often sent to NICU with little prior exposure to newborns. I have a pre made presentation of common newborn exam which I will be adding images of infants seen in Tanzania in hopes of making this more relatable.
ST JOHNS MEDICAL COLLEGE (INDIA)
I work at a clinic in Minneapolis which has a large immigrant population which often has exposures to tuberculosis. I'm hoping with more hands on exposure to Infectious Disease in India I will be able to better serve my patient population clinically and be quicker at picking up more subtle signs of disease.
SELIAN LUTHERAN HOSPITAL (TANZANIA)
- Identify a global health project need which is guided by needs assessment by staff on site and use local resources to ensure that it can be sustainably carried forward.
- Set in to motion a more long term study which will be perpetuated by multiple residents from the same program ensuring continuity and giving us the chance to make a more sustained difference.
- Share knowledge on newborn exam findings and develop a more suitable presentation for local Tanzanian registrars.
ST JOHNS MEDICAL COLLEGE (INDIA)
- Improve personal knowledge of common infectious disease presentations.
- Hope to improve clinical care to patients provided at my local clinic based on experiences during month in India.
Working with interns, pediatric registrars, CMOs and pediatricians in Arusha Tanzania was career changing. The warmth and acceptance was hard to describe. From the day I arrived they helped me understand the system in Tanzania and helped me feel at home in Selian Lutheran Hospital and Arusha Lutheran Hospital
