Global Health Education Faculty Competencies

Abstract

In high-income countries, global health has emerged as a core component of medical education across most medical disciplines. Approximately two-thirds of US pediatric residency programs offer the opportunity to complete short-term global health electives in low- and middle-income countries,1 and about one-fifth of residents pursue such an elective. Internal medicine, emergency medicine, and pediatrics now all offer formal fellowship opportunities in international (ie, global) health. Global health opportunities among Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education–accredited pediatric subspecialty fellowship programs are limited but increasing, as noted by its online report.2 Global health has become a branch of science supporting institutionalized education. A rapidly expanding experience indicates that effective global health education should train students to understand global health statuses, to investigate global and local health issues with a global perspective, and to devise interventions to deal with these issues.3