International Opportunities

There are several global health electives available abroad and in areas of the United States. While you are away on a global health elective, your salary and benefits are covered. In addition, air fare is covered on some of them as well!

The benefit of being Med-Peds is that you get 2 institutional options when it comes to international health. Through our pediatrics program at Cincinnati Children’s, there are several site options, that continue to grow each year through new partnerships. CCHMC has a dedicated Global Heath Center whose mission is to provide international experiences for residents.(click link to find out more and to see potential sites).

Med-Peds residents can apply to the Global Health Pathway through the pediatric residency that provides a dedicated curriculum woven into their residency from intern year and throughout residency. In the pathway, residents meet regularly to discuss active global health issues through quarterly journal clubs and are paired with mentorship to develop a scholarly project in their areas of interest.

There are established site through Indian Health Service (USA), Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and the Dominican Republic. There is money available during your 2nd and 4th years (as med-peds residents), as well as a additional Global Health Fund available to those who are part of the Global Health Pathway. There is also an institutional research grant available to residents through the GROW award. Additionally, we encourage residents to apply for National and Regional AAP grants! 

We have had residents do designer rotations in more than a dozen states and countries such as: Indonesia, China, more than 5 countries in Africa (Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Swaziland, South Africa,, Ghana), Nepal, India, and many countries in Central and South America (such as Mexico and Peru).

In addition to our CCHMC sites, there are also partnerships with our UC Family Medicine residency program to travel to Guatemala to established partnership sites.

Many of our residents do global health rotations during residency. In addition, many of our graduate have continued their commitment to Global Health as a major part of their careers! You can read more about their stories below.

"Cincinnati Children’s has an established partnership with Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) in Lilongwe, Malawi. I went to KCH for the first time this past spring and will be returning this year and next year. KCH is a referral hospital that has about 215 pediatric beds and admits more than 27,000 pediatric patients each year. As a resident rotator, I predominantly worked in the Emergency Zone (a high acuity ward) alongside local medical officers, interns and medical students. Residents take vital signs, complete daily rounds, administer breathing treatments and set up respiratory equipment, administer medications at times when nurses are unavailable, and retrieve blood from the blood bank amongst other tasks. We also work closely with medical students, teaching during bedside and afternoon rounds. Working in Malawi has exposed me to a wide array of clinical pathology to which I have significantly less exposure in the United States. It has given me experience practicing medicine in a lower resource setting and has made me better prepared to care for patients locally and abroad. Although I am still discerning what I plan to do in my future career, I look forward to incorporating global health."

 - Teresa Caya, Class of 2021

”Through the Global Health Pathway at Cincinnati Children's, I was able to spend 3 separate months of residency serving at Mbingo Baptist Hospital in Northwest Cameroon, specifically, in inpatient pediatric wards, NICU, PICU, and clinic. I was able to treat children admitted with a range of complex, and often very rare diseases. The opportunities for learning and personal growth continued to exceed my expectations. I also had the immense privilege of teaching Cameroonian medical residents and ancillary staff, which is truly a necessity in sustaining long-term medical care for this community. We have also been working with children who are victims of abuse or other early childhood stressors, with a goal of improving their mental health to reduce the impact of both acute psychosocial stress, as well as chronic disease. Because of the wonderful relationships developed with both the medical staff and the community, along with a personal calling, I plan to spend two months per year as a Pediatric Hospitalist at Mbingo. while my other months will be spend as a Med-Peds hospitalist in Nashville, TN at Vanderbilt UCMC!”

- Merranda Holmes, Class of 2018

“Global Health strips away the glamour and superiority of practicing medicine. It distills into its most base components what it takes to care for another person. You are immediately exposed to the adversities and nuances of that person's life that has led them to become ill, and gives you a better window into how to help. At the same time it opens your mind to the importance not just of individual health, but on a population scale how big, broad, difficult to talk about topics like politics, economics, policy, climate, and geography play into health. You can become cynical, or you can embrace it, but you will be changed afterwards.  Currently I'm working on the development of humanitarian relief protocols in the developing world in a coordinated effort with the WHO, ICRC, and MSF. In Boston, I'm pursuing my MPH with a focus in global health and development. To pay the bills, I work at a hospitalist in pediatrics at Boston Children's and in medicine at Brigham and Women's.”

- Ned Palmer, Class of 2018