Pathway Director; Marie Brubacher, M.D, Nate Bahr, M.D., Jessica Newman, D.O.
We believe supporting resident physicians to become leaders in addressing health disparities in both resource rich and challenged areas is essential to our training philosophy. Our Community and Global Health Pathway provides residents with clinical experiences as well as research and educational opportunities that foster an understanding of the economic, social, and political challenges that impact health equity. We have partnered with the Division of Infectious Diseases and Department of Community and Family Medicine to broaden our community and shared goals.
Educational opportunities available in this pathway include:
Foundations of Global Health Series
The Foundations of Global Health Series is a bi-annual series that is offered in partnership with the Office of International Programs that connects residents and fellows with faculty leaders in global health. The series offers a platform for showcasing our faculty and supporting the development of our future global health professionals during training.
Global Health Journal Club
Global Health Journal Club is a bi-annual conference that is hosted by the Division of Infectious Disease and is an opportunity to review and discuss recent or seminal peer reviewed journal articles relevant to the field of global health.
Community Health Experience
- Jay Doc Free Clinic Community health experiences include the opportunity to serve at the JayDoc Free Clinic on a longitudinal basis during +1 weeks in lieu of an alternative clinical assignment. The JayDoc Free Clinic provides urgent and preventive care services from KU medical students under the supervision of attending and resident physicians. It is entirely free of charge and designed to address social and financial barriers to health care access that exist in Wyandotte County and the surrounding area. Other community health experiences can be accommodated as elective assignments as well. In 2019, there were 78 resident volunteer encounters at the JayDoc Free Clinic. These encounters added up to over 312 service hours in which resident physicians gained insight into the challenges many patients in the community have to navigate when in need of healthcare.
- Kansas Department of Health and Environment Elective Residents interested in community health systems, disease control and prevention, epidemiology/public health informatics, and health promotion are encouraged to apply for an elective block with Dr. Kellie Wark at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment in Topeka, KS. See the KDHE - Public Health Internship information on the Elective Rotations page.
Global Health Experience
In partnership with Graduate Medical Education and the Office of International Programs, the University of Kansas Internal Medicine Program supports and facilitates global health experiences for our resident physicians. The Office of International Programs at The University of Kansas Medical Center has executed agreements with partner sites across the world. Details for applying for a global health elective educational experience can be found on our electives page.
Most recently, Dr. Mario Castro, Division Chair of the Department of Pulmonary Critical Care and Sleep Medicine will be traveling with a team including an internal medicine resident to a longitudinal site in Honduras.
Residents participating in global health experiences are encouraged to develop a scholarly project or reflection as a part of this elective.
Programmatic support to attend a national education meeting
Provision of elective time to attend a national meeting. Examples of opportunities include a two-week course in a rigorous non-degree summer program that trains public health leaders and health practitioners. The program is co-sponsored by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School. Of note, at this time, the program cannot cover tuition or living expenses associated with this course.
