Medicine Abroad International Elective

The Medicine Abroad Program (MAP) at Saint Louis University is a scholarship that completely funds any 3rd or 4th year resident to participate in an international elective in a developing country. This grant allows residents to either find their own location or to spend one month at a site one of our resident grant recipients have gone to in the past. All the resident’s travel and local expenses are covered by this program through funds generously donated by Dr. Philip A. Riley, Jr. and Mrs. Joane Riley, and the additional contribution of Dr. Wilmott and Department of Pediatrics. This program has the strong support of the faculty and residency program director.

These are the scholarly activities required for this rotation. A one-hour noon conference must be given at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center four to six weeks after the experience is complete. Also, a scholarly activity, appropriate for the rotation site, is performed during the rotation. This might include a lecture, teaching session during rounds, an advocacy project, or an educational forum with a community group. The goal is for the resident to learn about the local medical problems, care for patients in the community and by teaching others, improved the delivery of care after the resident departs. Residents are expected to complete four modules of their choice on the Global Health Education Consortium e-learning materials. Starting in 2012-13 year residents will participate in five meetings with the other participants to prepare for their elective and process their experiences with the rest of the participants.

MAP is in the process of establish an additional program which would be a one week elective with the Pediatric Residency in Haiti. Residents would be allowed to go for one week with one of the Cardinal Glennon Pediatric attendings during the attendings one week teaching rotation in Haiti. Currently there are four CGCH attendings that plan to spend one week in Haiti over the next year. This is part of the AAP program that seeks to establish an exchange program with the Pediatric Residency in Haiti.

Since the inception of the program in 2004, thirty four residents have received this scholarship. Each of the residents will go on a one-month medical mission trip to a country of their choice.

The 2012 MAP scholarship recipients were Mwela Njabi Asombang, M.D., Angela Delecaris, M.D., Sreecharan Mavuram, M.D., Jonathan Rodrigues, M.D., Eric Strodtman, M.D., and Paul Tuttle, D.O. The 2012-2013, residents will travel to Botswana, Belize, and Congo.

The 2011-2012 recipients were Drs. Austin Dalrymple, Christelle Ilbuodo, George Kasarala, Amanda Parsley, Sunil Raikar and Laura Waters. These doctors did their electives in Kenya, Burkina Faso, Jamaica and Belize.

The 2010-2011 MAP scholarship recipients- Felix Mensah went to the Democratic Republic of Congo with Dr Rice, Sarah AuBuchon went to Guatamala and Shashi Katukoori served in Belize at Hillside Health International clinic in Belize, Central America.

The 2009-2010 scholarship recipients were Dr. Convers who went to Columbia, South America on her Medicine Abroad elective. Dr. Fields worked in Dominican Republic and had an opportunity to live with a host family for one week in a remote rural village. Drs. Keenan, Gleeson, Leung and Hill served in Belize at Hillside Health International Clinic in Belize, Central America.

[SOURCE] Department of Internal Medicine