News Article
October 13, 2009
Duke Global Health Residency Program Expands in its Second Year
Interest in global health programs has grown sharply in the past several years, especially among medical students and young clinicians who want to improve health conditions in resource-poor communities around the world. The trend is taking shape at Duke, as the two-year-old Duke Global Health Residency Program introduces a new class of clinicians this fall.
The Hubert-Yeargan Center for Global Health (HYC) and the Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI) have selected five new global health residents and fellows to the program: Jerry Bloomfield, Erica Casey, Lauren Franz, Tom Holland and Ruchi Puri.
“We are seeing some of the brightest and best students who really want to engage in global health,” said Nathan Thielman, director of the Global Health Residency Program. “We have a much more socially-conscious group of medical students now, and that’s translating over into residency training programs where they can use the education they received and help to address issues related to health disparities worldwide.”
The Duke Global Health Residency Program (GHRP) is a comprehensive 18-24 month program that provides residents and fellows with advanced training and education to address health inequalities in resource-poor settings. The program includes at least nine months of research and clinical work at one of its international training sites, which primarily include: Moshi, Tanzania; Eldoret, Kenya; and Kampala, Uganda. International partner sites in Haiti, Nicaragua, Rwanda and Sri Lanka are under development.
It was the vision of Duke Health Affairs Chancellor Victor J. Dzau to create a multidisciplinary global health residency that involved a variety of departments. Since the program was created in 2007, GHRP departmental participation has expanded beyond Medicine, Neurosurgery, Ob/Gyn and Psychiatry to include Emergency Medicine, Infectious Diseases and Cardiology. Thielman said there is interest among other departments at Duke, and anticipates further departmental engagement in coming years. A growing interdisciplinary focus will allow residents and fellows to better address future needs in global health.
Casey, Holland and Puri each spent six weeks at their respective training sites this summer to begin clinical activities and set up mentored research projects related to their field. They are also currently enrolled in the Duke Global Health Institute’s Master of Science in Global Health (MSc-GH) Program, which launched this year.
“The MSc-GH has been really great in terms of allowing me to feel bonded, not only to my fellow clinicians, but also others in the program. I think the intention of what we want to do with our lives is so wonderful and powerful, and it’s been great to get to know everyone and learn beside them,” said Puri, the new Global Health Obstetrics and Gynecology Resident. In January, she will return to Moshi, Tanzania where she will work under the mentorship of Duke Physician Jeff Wilkinson, who has developed a Women’s Health Collaboration with Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center. “It’s so exciting to now be at the point where I can make some tangible contributions in the communities where I serve.” 
Franz and Bloomfield each completed advanced degrees in public health prior to participating in the GHRP. As a result, Franz is completing a Duke Psychiatry Fellowship and Bloomfield, a Duke Cardiology Fellow, is currently conducting his global health fieldwork in Eldoret, Kenya. So far, the experience has been both exciting and educational, and he is confident his long-term career path will benefit from the experience.
“I believe that my contributions to the field of global health will be more informed, and therefore, more respected as a result of this program,” said Bloomfield. “My project focuses on heart failure in Western Kenya, which is a large public health issue whose determinants remain unclear. By addressing this problem in a systematic way, I hope to impact the lives of many people in Kenya.”
GHRP Fellow Erica Casey looks forward to her training overseas, since her field of emergency medicine has largely been neglected in global health in the past. “With the increasing burden of accident and injury-related death and disability in many low and middle income countries, the field of emergency medicine has much to offer the global health community,” said Casey. She chose the residency program because of Duke’s rich global health community and emphasis on fieldwork.
As for Thielman, he hopes the first two classes of residents will feel connected to the communities they are training in, and will want to continue their work there once the program is completed. Developing viable career paths for global health trainees has been a top priority of the HYC and DGHI. Thielman said, “We want to equip them with the necessary tools and skills to address health disparities, not just while they are residents, but for their entire career.”