International Health Programs and Initiatives
Asia
ACT-NOW!
David Katzenstein, MD; Associate Professor of Medicine - Infectious Diseases
Locations: South Africa, Zimbabwe, India, Thailand, Israel, Uganda, Spain, Portugal, China
Participation: undergraduates
Dr. Katzenstein is one of the principle investigators, working in the United States and in Africa for over ten years in collaboration with Stanford University and the University of Zimbabwe, who is researching affordable treatment for HIV/AIDs in Africa.
Child Family Health International (CFHI)
Evaleen Jones, MD, MPH; Founder and Medical Director, CFHI;
Clinical Assistant Professor, Stanford Family and Community Medicine
Location: Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, India, Mexico, Nicaragua, South Africa
Times: summer, fall, winter, spring
Participation: undergraduates, medical students, residents, health professionals
Child Family Health International’s (CFHI) Global Health Service-Learning Programs combine instruction, experience, service, and reflection to create a model that supports physicians and clinical sites abroad, addresses the healthcare needs of the underserved, and adds an unforgettable experiential element to each program participant’s education.
CFHI programs bring service-learning into hospitals and clinics around the world, allowing participants to gain insight on the contextual constructs of illness and healing in foreign settings. Program Alumni return from the host country with new perspectives on healthcare systems and delivery in places where resources and supplies are extremely limited.
Early Clinical Experience in International Family & Community Medicine (INDE 284)
Sam Le Baron , MD, PhD; Professor of Family and Community Medicine
Location: Mexico, South Africa, India, China, and Tibet
Times: Periods 1-12 available, full-time for 4-8 weeks
Participation: medical students, undergraduates who meet prerequisites
An international experience for preclinical medical students (and undergraduates by special arrangement). An interactive early clinical experience with physicians, community leaders, health care workers, and patients in Mexico, South Africa, India, China, and Tibet. The course emphasizes community health from local and global perspectives. Course activities may include seminars, discussion and independent study. Undergraduates are not eligible to apply for the South Africa site. Undergraduate applicants for Mexico should apply though International Alliance in Service and Education (IASE), and for the Asian sites through Volunteers in Asia (VIA). Medical students should apply through the Center for Education in Family & Community Medicine. Conversational Spanish is required for the Mexico site.
India Clinical Internship (formerly NCI)
BinBin Jiang; Graduate student, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Location: India
Times: summer
Participation: Undergraduates, graduates, medical students
NCI is a Stanford-based student organization that offers undergraduate, graduate and medical students the opportunity to undertake clinical internships in Nepal and India. (Note: The Nepal Clinical Internship has been discontinued due to political unrest and travel warnings.)
Project Dosti
Location: India
Time: summer
Participation: undergraduates.
This student-run program provides participants with an opportunity to learn more about India, create connections with local communities, and work with some of India's foremost social leaders. In the field, Dosti volunteers work towards fulfilling a recognized need in a particular community. Past projects have included social, health, and economic slum surveys; designing interactive educational curricula for urban and rural youth; community health education; and raising funds and providing supplies for local projects.
Unite for Sight
Jennifer Staple, Founder, President, CEO, Unite for Sight; Stanford Medical Student
Peter Egbert, MD; Professor of Opthalmology, Stanford School of Medicine; Unite For Sight Medical Advisory Board Member
Location: Ghana, India, Thailand, and Stanford
Time: spring, summer, fall, winter
Participation: undergraduates, medical students, residents, and health professionals
Unite For Sight is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that empowers communities worldwide to improve eye health and eliminate preventable blindness. Volunteer Teams work with partner eye clinics in developing countries to provide eye care and eye health education programs. Additionally, vision screening and education programs are implemented worldwide by volunteers working in ninety chapters established at universities and in communities. The Stanford Chapter of Unite for Sight provides screenings and education programs in the Bay Area and also supports its students engaging in both service-learning and research abroad.
Via Exploring Healthcare
V.I.A (formerly Volunteers in Asia)
Locations: Stanford and San Francisco
Time: Spring Break, late June
Participation: Stanford undergraduates
Each year VIA offers six Stanford medical and pre-medical students the opportunity to help coordinate the Exploring Health Care Program for visiting Japanese medical students. Program assistants will live with the students in San Francisco during Spring Break and help coordinate programs during the first week of Spring Quarter. Program assistants will get the chance to visit community clinics, hospitals and hospices in the Bay Area, meet with HIV positive individuals, organ donor recipients, and Stanford professors and doctors. They will also design educational presentations on US Health Care for the Japanese students. In exchange, program assistants will also be able to visit the participating medical schools in Japan in late June.
World MD Vietnam Medical Project
Kelly Murphy, MD; Surgery/Emergency Medicine, Stanford
Location: Ninh Binh Province (Northern Vietnam) and Quang Nam (Central Vietnam)
Time: 3 weeks during summer, varying with teams
Participation: undergraduates, graduates, medical students, doctors.
The mission of the project is to “build a long and committed relationship with the communities in this area through small, reproducible health care delivery programs and medical education. The ultimate mission is to create an independent healthcare system, which is fully staffed, supported, and sustained by the local villages without outside influence or direction." Student volunteers (undergrads and medical students) are trained on how to recognize symptoms for illnesses commonly found in Vietnam and how to perform physical examinations. Once stationed, teams of 12 members staff the clinics and train local medics.
