Welcome to the Global Health Track for OB/GYN residents at Orlando Health Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies!
Why do you have a global health track?
Our mission is to inspire and train OB/GYN physicians to engage in improving the lives of women and babies around the world.
At Orlando Health Winnie Palmer Hospital, we believe there has never been a time when it is more important to inspire and train American physicians to engage in global health careers whether they see themselves living internationally as a career, traveling for short-term trips, or being a strategic donor that supports the work that is necessary to improve the lives of women and babies around the world.
In 2017, 96% of all US OB/GYN residents said that global health was important to them, but only 18% of programs have organized programs that can help residents pursue their passions. That year, we set out to create an opportunity that will have longitudinal impact that is bigger than what one resident can accomplish independently in four years.
What does the global health track include?
The Global Health Track is a mentored, four-year experience that includes 1-2 residents from each class. We meet monthly during protected academic time to discuss a topic related to women’s global health. We want to provide excellent training in three areas:
- Public health basics such as statistics, program planning, critical appraisal, and evaluation
- Leadership development to help you know yourself and how to lead others cross culturally
- Clinical instruction for how to navigate the challenges of practicing in a low-resource environment
Our monthly didactics include a resident-led journal club and topical discussion that operates on a rolling four-year curriculum so that you feel like you are part of the program no matter when you start.
The track points towards an international elective in your third year. We partner with Kybele (www.kybeleworldwide.org), an NGO focused on improving care for mothers and babies through educational partnerships on their program called the Making Every Baby Count Initiative (MEBCI 2.0) in Ghana. This program is looking to improve the antenatal, intrapartum, and neonatal care in regional referral hospitals in Ghana in order to decrease neonatal mortality. Maternal mortality and morbidity goes hand-in-hand with neonatal care. We helped to design the obstetric portion of this grant and partner with local doctors, midwives, and other providers to implement the program at a large scale.
What are the values that shape your program?
- We grow: Engaging in global health begins with your own personal growth that helps you to understand how your personality, giftings, and skillset can improve the lives of women and babies in our city and around the world.
- We go: Part of this experience will involve traveling to our partner institution to put into practice the skills and knowledge you have gained in the program.
- We sow: Our program is committed to a long-term strategy to strengthen and develop local healthcare providers so that they can provide high-quality care in their settings.
What does a sample year look like?
- July: Program installation when we talk about our program culture, mission, and performance.
- August: Global surgery: Understanding the OB/GYN’s place in the Lancet Global Surgery Commission.
- September: Institutional birth: Does being born in a facility improve the lives of women and babies around the world?
- October: Safe surgery: How can we perform surgery safely in low-resource settings?
- November: Management of obstetric hemorrhage and preeclampsia in low-resource settings, a simulation for saving lives.
- December: Break for interviews and holidays
- January: Financing development: A review of competing philosophies for how to eliminate extreme poverty.
- February: Strengths Finders: How understanding your strengths can open up your leadership and bring the best out of others.
- March: International elective for third year(s).
- April: Documentary night
- May: Do more, better: How to increase your personal productivity so you can get things done for the good of others
- June: Guest speaker
For more information, please view this video:
Who will be leading the global health track?
David Goodman MD, MPH will serve as your faculty mentor. He is a former Fulbright Scholar and Fogarty Global Health researcher who lived in Tanzania for an extended period. He has experience working in Ghana and India and has published articles related to maternal and fetal mortality prevention, quality improvement, and cost-effectiveness in low-resource settings.
