Ghana Medical Education & Research Exchange

Utah Medical Students in Ghana

Since 2001, students and faculty advisors have studied at the School of Medical Sciences in Kumasi, Ghana. This is a pre-clinical community health rotation available to freshman/sophomore students in summer break before their sophomore/junior year.

Curriculum

Each summer the program involves more interaction between the faculty, students, and members of local organizations in Ghana. The program activities include:

  1. GHI team and Ghanaian villagersEight hours of classroom education prior to travel and/or Public Health Course.
  2. Students assigned in pairs to work in community health centers.
  3. Student activities in the clinics include:
    • observation of medical care
    • helping with registration of patients
    • taking blood pressures
    • learning of new diseases
    • teaching preventive medicine
    • observing laboratory testing
    • performing some procedures under the direction of the clinical staff such as weight babies
    • participate in a public health project and write an abstract from the project
  4. Students participate in a post‑travel debriefing where they discuss what could be done on future student rotations that will help evaluate and improve the medical experience in Ghana.

First and second-year medical students wishing to apply for the Ghana Medical Exchange Program can do so via the International Center’s website.

Program Director

DeVon C. Hale, M.D. is the Medical Director of the International Travel Clinic at University Hospital and for pre-travel consultations at Salt Lake Valley, Davis, Wasatch, and Southwest Utah County Health Departments and the LDS Church’s Travel Clinic. Additionally, he is the Utah-site Principal Investigator for GeoSentinel, a worldwide disease surveillance project based out of the Centers for Disease Control.