Vanderbilt Emergency Medicine

International Health Fellowship:

We offer a fellowship in international health that is individually designed based upon the interests and career goals of each individual fellow. Fellows typically obtain a MPH as part of their program and have options to complete a tropical medicine diploma course or pursue other educational opportunities. Fellows spend between three to six months abroad each year working on a variety of projects. Please click here for more information about our fellowship program.

Our Current Projects:

GUYANA 

We have been committed to educational programs at Georgetown Public Hospital in Guyana since 2002 and are expanding these efforts in 2009-2010 and beyond. One of our prime accomplishments has been the development of a self-sustaining ACLS program. Providers at GPH that we trained have now taught ACLS to over 300 Guyanese physicians and nurses. Recent courses we have taught include PALS and PALS instructor courses, neonatal resuscitation, wound care and emergency ultrasound. We are working closely with our partners to increase our capacity building, patient care, and educational efforts in Guyana.

KENYA 

Dr. Stephan Russ has been involved at Maseno Hospital in Kenya since 2007 where he has been piloting projects in social marketing for the purpose of optimizing health behaviors in infant care. He has also worked on projects assessing the efficacy of a helminth control project. Dr. Russ is leading our efforts to scale up our partnership with Children’s Hospital, Boston, at this hospital.

HAITI 

Members of our department have had a long relationship with a clinic in the Grande Anse region of Haiti. We are now expanding our efforts to assist with education of the staff at Visitation Hospital located in Petite Riviere de Nippes. Our activities there include education, systems analysis and direct care of patients in need.

ZAMBIA 

Dr. Jeff McKinzie has had a multi-year involvement in a program in rural Zambia that involves health screening and HIV counseling and care. His most recent abstract from this program was “Assessing the feasibility and acceptability of routine, opt-out HIV testing and counseling in rural Southern Zambia" which was presented at the Unite for Sight 2009 Global Health Conference.

NEW ZEALAND

Our department has a new arrangement in which our residents can do elective rotations at Wanganui Hospital on the North Island of New Zealand. Our residents practice there under supervision and are able to learn about medical care in the New Zealand system including care of the indigenous population. Airfare and lodging are provided for participating residents!

Upcoming Trips: 

NOVEMBER 2009 – Members of the Department of Emergency Medicine and Vanderbilt ED nursing staff will be going to Guyana on November 5-10. This trip is part of our continuing partnership with health care providers at Georgetown Public Hospital, the main teaching facility in Guyana. Our primary purpose for this trip is to conduct a nursing triage course to strengthen their triage process. The trip will be led by Gary Howard, RN, MBA and International Health fellow Kristin Dettorre, MD. Others who will be going include Drs. Rohde and Russ from our Division, EM resident Carrie Klotz, and Vandy ED nurses Marty Nichols, Ali Grubbs, Morgan Vero and Sara LeBlanc.

JANUARY 2010 - Drs. Russ and Rohde will be going to Maseno Hopsital in Kenya to continue and expand on programs in social marketing behaviors in infant care.

JANUARY 2010 - IH fellow Dr. Dettorre will be going to Ecuador to give a lecture at the XXIII Jornadas Medicas Internacionales Vozandes conference. The title of conference this year is "Emergencias 2010: Enfrentando al trauma y los desastres." She will be going with three other Vandy faculty - Drs. Stack, Smith and Thurman. 

JANUARY 2010 - Members of the division will be going to Wanganui Hospital on the North Island of New Zealand. To be totally honest and for full disclosure we will actually be backpacking the Milford and Routeburn tracks. But we'll take this opportunity to visit with our friends at Wanganui Hospital. This is the hospital where our residents can rotate at during their elective months. 

FEBRUARY 2010 - We are going to Haiti to Visitation Hospital located in Petite Riviere de Nippes. This trip is  scheduled for the 13-20th of February. We will be doing daily mobile clinics to provide care to patients who are unable to get to the clinic. We will also be doing ultrasound teaching for their physicians and evaluating their HIV screening and treatment program. 

March 2010 - We are are tentatively scheduled to conduct an ultrasound course for physicians at Georgetown Public Hospital in Guyana in late March. This course is still in the planning stages.

Division News:

• October 2009: Dr. Jean Francois from Visitation Hospital in Haiti made a visit to Vanderbilt to tour our facilities. We were able to discuss and finalize our future involvement with VH and our upcoming service and educational trips. 
• October 2009: We have confirmed plans for an ongoing elective for our residents at Wanganui Hospital in New Zealand! Our residents will be able to do a one or two month elective at this hospital and will have expenses paid, including airfare, housing and food. 
• October 2009: Resident Carrie Klotz is on her way to India to work for a month with the Himalayan Health Foundation.
• September 2009: Team members have returned from an exploratory visit to Visitation Hospital in Haiti. The visit was successful and we are planning on a variety of educational and service related trips for the future. 
• August 2009: Members of our division have published chapters in the 3rd edition of the Atlas of Emergency Medicine which was just released this month. The chapter on Wilderness Medicine was authored by Ian Jones while the chapter on Tropical Medicine was authored by Seth Wright. Dozens of medical photos taken by the two were also published in the book.
• August 2009: Members of the division met with representatives of Project Dawn to further our plans for medical education in Guyana.
• August 2009: We have had initial discussions with the ED director of a hospital on the North Island of New Zealand to determine the feasibility and logistics for a unique resident rotation.
• July 2009: Jeff McKinzie spent much of the month in Zambia working on a rural HIV screening project.
• July 2009: A review of the book "Expedition & Wilderness Medicine" was published in JAMA by Ian Jones and EM Chairman Corey Slovis.
• July 2009: Dr. Wright met with Theresa Patterson, the executive director of the Parish Twinning Programs of the Americas. The purpose of this meeting was to develop a partnership for education and service at the new Visitation Hospital in Petite Riviere de Nippes, Haiti.
• July 2009: Third year resident Dana Woodhall was chosen as a Yale/Johnson & Johnson Scholar in International Health. She will spend two months later this year working in Liberia as part of the program.
• July 2009: Our first International Health fellow started her fellowship this month! Dr. Kristen Dettorre, a Vanderbilt emergency medicine residency graduate, is now a fellow in our division. She is spending most of the months of July and August in the definitely non-tropical city of Minneapolis learning tropical medicine at the University of Minnesota/CDC program in tropical medicine.