Peru Global Health Study Abroad
Background
We are a six-week summer based out of Peru, a country in Latin America, which is composed of desert, mountain and rainforest regions. While it enjoys vigorous economic growth, its poverty rate is estimated at 40%. These factors combine to make Peru an ideal place for learning and service. It has the geography to provide varied medical experience and it has the economy to support lasting improvement. We focus on quality improvement initiatives. We followed the motto "that which we measure, we improve." We further believe that sustained improvement can only be obtained if the local population is involved and takes leadership in all collaborations. We are open to medical students and anyone with interest in global health care. Since we are working with the local population Spanish speaking skills are a great help.
The Experience
While in country, students will travel with their teams to their respective locations in order to strengthen relationships with local hospital and physician collaborators, collect the necessary information and begin to analyze the data. Lectures will be given throughout the stay in order for students to understand the fundamentals of travel medicine, issues and current trends in global health, and in depth discussion of the illnesses with which they are involved in researching, including the global burden of these diseases and the role of their work in decreasing this burden.
Upon arriving home, students will put in another 50-100 hours. They will work as teams to finish compiling the data obtained and to write an abstract of sufficient quality to be submitted for presentation at a national conference. To meet conference submission deadlines, this work will need to be finished by mid-October.
For more information see the study abroad site for Peru.
