Finding Home: Part I

Written by Ray Mak, UVMLCOM Class of 2022

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Where is home for you? If I had to pin a physical location, I would consider Southern California my home. Though I only lived there for four years in college, they were the best years of my life. I felt truly at home. For some, home isn’t defined by where you grow up, how long you’ve lived in a particular place, or where your parents chose to settle down. Rather, it’s measured in the love and safety to nurture your authentic self. For me, home is not held in a physical space, but within the circles of people I hold close to me. Home truly is where the heart is and unexpectedly, I left a piece of my heart in Thailand this summer.

Zero By Thirty: Ending the Global Rabies Crisis

Written by Dr. Stephen Scholand, Associate Director of the Nuvance / University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine Global Health Program

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Rabies is one of the most terrible diseases of all, a relic from the Dark Ages of medical history. It’s probably the worst of all the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), a heterologous mix of diseases that should no longer exist but unfortunately continue to affect so many in the Global South. The symptoms of rabies are frightening. It is the face of fear.

An Excellent Learning Day

Written by Ahja Steele, Ross University School of Medicine Class of 2020

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Today was an excellent learning day. We went to the hospital with the immunization clinic as the agenda and heard an amazing lecture by Sister Florence who knows immunizations like the back of her hand. I am glad she went into detail, as my undergraduate medical education program did not cover many specifics about immunizations She gave us a pamphlet detailing the weeks at which a baby should receive vaccines based on Uganda’s standards. From there, we immunized several babies.

Linde Healthcare Educators Without Borders: Building an International Army of Healthcare Educators

Written by Jamidah Nakato, Ph.D. and Hamidah Babirye, Ph.D. candidate, Co-Directors of Linde Healthcare Educators Without Border (LHEWB)

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The Nuvance Health Global Health Program, in conjunction with Linde, introduces Linde Healthcare Educators Without Borders (LHEWB): a new program aimed at building an international army of healthcare educators trained to mobilize wherever needed to meet the burgeoning demand for committed and highly skilled healthcare professionals. Emulating the Nuvance Health/University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine Global Health Program, LHEWB has been created with the vision of an inclusive, multi-connected web of talented participants and mission of capacity building on-the-ground in the areas of medical education, research, and leadership.

Bloody Diamonds

Written by Dr. Marcia Glass, Program Director at Tulane Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fellowship and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine

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There are no paintings on the walls in the hospitals I have worked at in the capital of Liberia over the past five years. The bareness on the walls parallels the limited equipment I have on hand to care for patients with bacterial meningitis, pericardial tuberculosis, and malaria. Listening to some of these patients or looking at their chest films without the benefit of modern technology, I get the feeling I am seeing pathology in its most extreme form—the way people saw it when the diseases we now treat routinely in the United States were first discovered.

Active Learning in Global Health Medical Education

Written by Dr. Molly Moore, Director of Global Health at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine Pediatrics Department

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Originally presented at the Inaugural Western Connecticut Health Network Global Health Conference.

Challenging Moments in Global Health: Navigating Cross-Cultural Boundaries

Written by Dalia Martinez, freelance content strategist and friend of the Global Health Program, and Professor Chiratidzo Ellen Ndhlovu, Director of the Global Health Program at the University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences

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From a series of discussions about challenging moments in global health, with responses from global health leaders in the Global South and Global North. Please leave us your feedback in the comments section, and send us cases you would like to see discussed.

Capacity Building in Vietnam: A Moment of Recognition

Written by Dr. Majid Sadigh, Trefz Family Endowed Chair in Global Health at Nuvance Health, and Director of the Global Health Program at the University of Vermont College of Medicine

Week Two at Walailak University

Written by Collin Montgomery '22

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Week two really saw us begin to get down to business with Walailak University. On Monday, we toured the university campus and enjoyed a welcoming reception with the Office of International Relations, where we had the opportunity to meet  a group of French medical students, which was really nice. On Tuesday, we took part in a Problem-Based Learning exercise with Walailak medical students, which served as a fantastic review of hypersensitivity reactions and contact dermatitis! Wednesday entailed an experience in an outpatient clinic with a family medicine physician.

We Are In This Together

Written by Irene Sue, University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine Class of 2022

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She lies there in a corner of a ward reserved for adult female patients, clad in a beautiful red embroidered cloth, the fabric rising and falling, following the uneven rhythm of her labored breathing. Her concerned daughter looms closely nearby, next to the oxygen tank which has not seemed to help, anxiously awaiting Dr. Lenard Okello's instructions as he begins presenting the patient.