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Family Medicine Global Health Track

Family Medicine Global Health Track

Program Mission

We aim to provide an excellent, well-rounded global health experience and curriculum that will prepare residents to serve as leaders in high-quality, cost-effective, local, and international community-based medical solutions for defined populations.

Specific Goals

Provide mentorship and support for residents to attain career goals in caring for the community they choose to serve as a family physician.

  • Become an expert in Community Oriented Primary Care, and how to use the model of care for community development
  • Become an advocate for underserved communities, both domestic and international
  • Improved cultural competency
  • Train future leaders in global/domestic health program administration and advocacy, effecting change in health/social policy, and coalition building/funding procurement

Structure

Residents in the track will be provided two weeks during the first year and four weeks during the second and third year of training for global health experiences. The required Community Oriented Primary Care (COPC) rotation and scholarly project will be based on a patient population outside of the United States. The director of the Global Health Track will mentor the residents who are in the track. All residents will have the option of taking electives in global health, and the global health didactic sessions are available to all.  Global health track residents will be provided support for their travel and international research via the Shadyside Foundation Grant that we have been able to renew yearly for >15 yrs.  This grant also supports the senior residents’ attendance and presentations at the yearly CUGH (Consortium of Universities for Global Health) International conference.  

How to Apply

UPMC Shadyside will have up to two positions available per academic year. 

After the Match, all who are interested in the Global Health Track should provide a brief (one to two paragraphs) statement of their career goals, the reason for wanting to enter the track, and their ability to meet the track requirements by January 31, 2026.

The criteria considered in the selection are as follows: 

  • Career goals
  • Prior experience demonstrating competency in cross-cultural medical care
  • Academic performance which demonstrates the ability to handle the demands of the global health track, in addition to the family medicine core requirements

Following the NRMP Match, the Global Health Academic Committee, which includes the integrated family medicine program director and family medicine faculty members from each residency site within UPMC, will review their applicants’ files and statements of interest and will then select those who will participate in the track.

Core Curriculum

Regular COPC seminar meetings take place every other week for one hour. The global health track residents meet with the global health track faculty and advisors and work together on resident projects collaboratively. Community development/resident project work is the focus of these group meetings.

Global Health Seminars

Monthly seminars with attention given to include content across the eighteen-month curriculum cycle are from the following categories:

  • Tropical Medicine and Clinical Skills
  • Determinants of Health
  • Health Systems
  • Human Rights, Ethics, Culture, and Diplomacy
  • Policy, Governance, and Actors
  • Measuring Health, Burden of Disease, and Program Outcomes
  • Environment and Health

These social / educational evening sessions are co-facilitated by an experienced faculty member and a global health track resident with a meal together to add to the growth of strong relationships.

Core Textbook: William Markle et al., Understanding Global Health. (Lange, 2nd Edition)

In addition, once yearly, family medicine grand rounds, weekly lectures, and seminars are available at various schools at the University of Pittsburgh. There are many opportunities to collaborate with colleagues in multiple other disciplines in the schools of health sciences, as well as Public Health and International Health and Policy (nationally ranked schools within PITT).