Global Health Initiatives

Through McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University’s Global Health Clinical Scholars Program, resident and fellows learn competency-based global health in order to deliver clinical care in resource-limited settings worldwide. In addition to attending lectures and completing assignments, residents complete a month of international field experience. At the end of the two-year program, participants earn a certificate.

In February 2020, CA-3 resident Ariana Anugerah, MD, and regional fellow Kim Nguyen, MD, completed four-week and two-week rotations, respectively, at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana, with regional anesthesiologist Sarah Clark, MD, and in conjunction with the McGaw Global Health Clinical Scholars program and Health Volunteers Overseas. They worked alongside the attending anesthesiologists and residents in the preoperative clinic, the intensive care unit and in various anesthetizing locations, both exchanging experiences and comparing how anesthesia practices vary. They also provided a series of lectures on various topics for trainees and hands on clinical training in select peripheral nerve blocks. Furthermore, they conducted interviews to better understand the medical education system in Ghana and compared it with the education system in our country and across the globe.

In January 2019, Department of Anesthesiology faculty Feyce Peralta, MD, completed a monthlong rotation at Hospital Materno Dr. Reynaldo Almanzar in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, accompanied by Jack Peace (CA-3) and Adithya Bhat (fellow). They were also joined by faculty members Brad Bavaro, MD, MS, and Samir Patel, MD. While there, the Northwestern team worked alongside Dominican anesthesiologists to help provide obstetric care to an urban and underserved patient population. The team also devised a quality improvement project to improve antibiotic administration and thereby lower the rate of surgical site infection. A highlight of the experience was an opportunity to deliver a Grand Rounds presentation for the department on antibiotic prophylaxis. This experience in global health provided trainees with perspective on the challenges of working in a resource-limited setting and tools to help address cultural aspects of healthcare administration.