Medicine in developing or disaster struck countries

[Guest Future MSFer]

I have a HUGE interest in practicing medicine in developing / war torn/disaster struck countries for a couple years now and maybe some of you might be interested as well. So I thought I should start a discussion thread about any thing to do with the subject. It could be anything from interesting fact or articles you have found, Good web sites, or even tips on how to enter that sort of medical field. Also, please share any opinions you may have on the subject of foreign medical aide (ie: Is it good or is it actually a bad idea. Is political neutraly in such organizations good or bad)

 

I can start of by saying a good site to visit is:

 

http://www.msf.ca

 

P.S: If there has been a tread about this subject please tell me because I would like to visit it.

[Guest FungManX]

Hey, I was wondering how I could get involved with volunteering in africa or under developed places in china or equador as well. (Medically related volunteer positions ofcourse!)

 

If anyone has information on that please let me know!

[Guest UWOMED2005]

(Medically related volunteer positions ofcourse!)

 

This comment is not meant as a criticism of FungmanX, but. . .

 

I did an elective in rural South Africa in the fall. While it was personally and education wise a fantastic experience, one of the things that struck me was the realization that I probably could have made a greater difference to that region's health care had I been teaching (specifically sex ed) rather than working in the hospital.

 

What do I mean by that? The #1 issue in that region of the world is HIV. And working in a hospital, all you are really doing is dealing with the sequelae of HIV (ie meningitis, TB, candidiasis, derm infections) rather than tackling the disease itself. But I wasn't really altering disease progression greatly

 

A sex ed worker teaching 12 and 13 year olds at the local junior high about safe sex potentially could have a greater impact on regional mortality and life expectancy rates. And you wouldn't need to be in medical school to offer such a service.

 

Not to discount your desire to work abroad in medicine. . . I'd just like to point out that some non-medical roles have a huge impact on health care!

 

One more link you might be interested in: www.fmd.uwo.ca/students/meop/

 

That's the website for the UWO Medical Exchange Overseas Program, offering 4th year med students a chance to do 4th year electives overseas.

[Guest FungManX]

Hey thanks UWO,

I'm still a undergraduate student (year 1 going 2) and I'm up for any healthcare related job.

 

I'm just wondering if theres anything like that website you sent me for undergrad students as well?

[Guest ss80]

Hey FungManX,

There are tonnes of organizations out there that a non-medical student/doctor can participate with. I have participated with a couple of different organizations during my undergrad (Youth Challenge International, and Volunteer Abroad). They mainly focused on public health matters (HIV/AIDS awareness, basic hygiene, etc) and some manual labour. I basically just googled "volunteer overseas youth" (generally people under 25 are considered youth). Just keep in mind that most of these programs require you to pay a fee to go, ususally a couple of thousand. You may also want to look at the Canadian International Development Agency for internships, but they generally require that you have atleast an undergraduate degree to participate.

Hope this helps.

ss

[Guest Future MSFer]

her are good web sites or volenteering abrod:

 

www.volunteerabroad.com/

www.imva.org/

[Guest jlw]

YCI has a great website http://www.yci.org

 

and their focus in their new Africa projects (Tanzania and Ethopia) are peer education and HIV/AIDS awareness. They also have a stong focus on this area in Guyana. I participated in a YCI project after my 3rd year and loved it. Just thought I'd share that with you FungManX