In 2003 I went on a medical mission trip to Puerto Bermudez, Peru, a small trading village on a river at the edge of the Amazon. What I learned was unexpected. I had thought that most of my day would be filled with tropical diseases unique to this region. Instead, the vast majority of conditions were those that would be seen in most primary care clinics in rural underserved areas of the US. Furthermore, what had helped many of these patients over the course of their lives was a reasonably good public health system. Thus began my learning of the effectiveness of integrated delivery of clinical medicine and public health initiatives in managing health and disease in developing countries.

I encourage you to take your educational experience on the road. It will expose you to different models of healthcare delivery, give you the opportunity to practice medicine in a resource poor environment, allow for a firsthand look at many tropical diseases and disorders of poverty that you may not see in the US, and give you the chance to live the cultural awareness information you have only read about.

In 2005, OSU created the Office of Global Health Education (OGHE) with a vision "to inspire future physicians to become champions for global health and improve the quality of life for all. ... to prepare future physicians for practice in a diverse world, in part by fostering a spirit of service, cultural appreciation, and global partnership that will lessen the burden of disease worldwide, particularly among those most vulnerable." As the executive director of the OGHE, I am strongly supportive of these aims and my office works to continually improve our programs to meet the demands of our students for global health education.

When I was in medical school this type of curriculum did not exist. If it had, I might have become involved in global health 25 years earlier. If you have an interest in global health medicine, especially in developing countries, I would strongly encourage you to participate in a global health elective as well as including global medicine courses in your studies. I would also encourage you to take public health courses. One of the significant realizations I have come to as a result of my professional and personal interest in clinical and educational global health initiatives is the lack of public health education training in the medical student curriculum. In the arena of global health, public health experts are king. Treating infectious diseases in the developing world is much less effective than preventing them through methods such as the use of clean water, vector control, an adequate and nutritious food supply, vaccination programs, properly located latrines, and basic health education of the population.

A current initiative of the OSU College of Medicine is the development of a Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Global Health (GISGH). The GISGH will provide students advanced educational opportunities in the field of global health. The program allows graduate and professional students an opportunity to gain specific expertise in the unique challenges of health care in the developing world and among immigrant populations in the United States through both required and elective coursework. The Specialization's core course focuses on the basic components of population health, while the electives allow students to pursue topics across the other Health Sciences Colleges for an interdisciplinary experience. The development of the GISGH creates a significant opportunity to advance our mission to nurture and train the next generation of global health professionals for whom cross-discipline collaboration will be the norm. The specialization designation will not only provide graduate students with access to interdisciplinary study but will acknowledge formal recognition of such study on the student's transcript upon completion. The development of this program is closely aligned with OSU's goal of being a global institution.

Global health knowledge is important wherever you practice medicine. Even if you never plan to practice outside the US, it is inevitable that you will have patients from a culture and ethnicity different from your own. Understanding others practices and beliefs will greatly enhance your effectiveness as a physician anywhere you choose to practice. We also now understand that many diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis, avian influenza and SARS, do not respect national borders. This phenomenon arises out of increased international air travel, global shipping routes, and emigration and population shifts.

Whether you plan to make global health a full-time career, do volunteer work with humanitarian organizations in developing nations, or have a family medicine practice in Columbus, Ohio you will be affected by diseases from other parts of the globe. I have found a great deal of satisfaction in my "global practice" and while this type of work is not for everyone, if you think it may be for you-you're probably right.