An Important Educational Opportunity
The WellSpan York Hospital physician residency program, along with community physicians, are teaming up to develop a collaborative program to train residents who are interested in global health. The Center for Global Health Education will include both local and international learning opportunities. A core element of the training involves offering residents international rotations in low-resource settings.
During these trips, residents gain invaluable experience while helping to improve the lives of children and adults living in poverty.
Physician involvement in under-resourced international settings is important for social justice. While, in the United States, we provide treatments that sometimes cost $100,000 per year of life saved, there are treatments not being done in many areas of the world that cost only $20 to $50 per year of life saved. Paradoxically, providing global health training not only benefits the global community and develops quality physicians; it ultimately benefits our own community.
The Importance of Global Health
Studies have shown that residencies with strong global health programs attract high-quality, service-minded residents. Having such programs helps increase the number of physicians who care for the underserved in local communities after they graduate.
Global Health Track
All residents are offered the opportunity to be part of a two-year longitudinal global health track. The track provides mentoring, skills development, global health awareness and the opportunity to travel abroad. Residents not able to travel abroad may be accommodated with local global health electives. One product of international experience is original publication/research, such as case reports, grand rounds presentation and seminar presentation.
Global Health Steering Committee
- Nancy Nagib, MD, Co-Director, Center for Global Health Education
Dr. Nancy Nagib found her passion for medical missions during her medical school years at Penn State College of Medicine. She then completed her Family Medicine Residency at WellSpan York Hospital in 2008. She has been on numerous medical trips to Guatemala, where a clinic is set up in a remote village and American physicians work side-by-side with Guatemalan physicians. She has taken a special interest in the malnutrition problem found in Guatemala. Nancy was heavily involved with a team from the local community that has worked on raising funds for the village of Santa Rosa, where an Ixil population resides in the mountains of Guatemala. Their fundraising efforts supported a nutritional supplement, a clean water system, and an educational plan for Santa Rosa. She plans to continue serving on medical mission trips and teaching medical students and residents. Dr. Nagib is excited for the WellSpan Center for Global Health Education to partner with the local community to expand global health awareness through community outreach programs.
- Scott Williams, MD, Co-Director, Center for Global Health Education
Dr. Scott Williams grew up in West Virginia and attended college at Duke University, where he earned a degree in biomedical engineering. After completing his undergraduate studies, he volunteered as a high school math and science teacher in South Africa, leading to a life-long interest in global development. He attended medical school at the University of Virginia and was awarded the Dean's Geographic Medicine Scholarship, allowing him to pursue clinical rotations in Kenya and Ghana. After a year of general surgery at Maine Medical Center, he completed a residency in emergency medicine at Ohio State. He has been working as clinical faculty in the department of emergency medicine at WellSpan York Hospital since July of 2012. Dr. Williams is looking forward to expanding the reach of global health at WellSpan and increasing the opportunities for residents to work clinically in underserved communities abroad.
- Michael Bohrn, MD
- Marsha Bornt, MD
- Cathy Carpenter, MD
- Richard Kurz, MD
- John Monk, MD
- Lucie Moravia, DO
- Edward Nelson, MD
