Student Reflection Papers on a Global Clinical Experience: A Qualitative Study.

Background: Many of the 70,000 graduating US medical students [per year] have reported participating in a global health activity at some stage of medical school. This case study design provided a method for understanding the student's experience that included student's learning about culture, health disparities, exposure and reaction to a range of diseases actually encountered. The broad diversity of themes among students indicated that the GCE provided a flexible, personalized experience.

Reframing undergraduate medical education in global health: Rationale and key principles from the Bellagio Global Health Education Initiative.

Global health education (GHE) continues to be a growing initiative in many medical schools across the world. This focus is no longer limited to participants from high-income countries and has expanded to institutions and students from low- and middle-income settings. With this shift has come a need to develop meaningful curricula through engagement between educators and learners who represent the sending institutions and the diverse settings in which GHE takes place.

Foreign students' experience during a time of war.

Background: Due to the war in Gaza in 2009, Ben-Gurion University's Medical School for International Health with a student body of 165 international multicultural students canceled a week of classes. Third-year students continued clerkships voluntarily and fourth-year students returned to Israel before departing for electives in a developing country. A debriefing session was held for the entire school.

Guiding principles for the development of global health education curricula in undergraduate medical education.

Background: Global health education (GHE) at undergraduate medical institutions has expanded significantly over the last 30 years, but many questions remain regarding the best practices for the development and implementation of global health programs.

Aim: To identify key themes essential to the development of GHE programs.

Method: We discuss five themes relevant to GHE in the context of existing literature and practice.

A practical assessment of physician biopsychosocial performance.

Background: A biopsychosocial approach to care seems to improve patient satisfaction and health outcomes. Nevertheless, this approach is not widely practiced, possibly because its precepts have not been translated into observable skills.

Aim: To identify the skill components of a biopsychosocial consultation and develop an tool for their evaluation.

Evaluation of student attitudes and knowledge in a new program in international health and medicine.

Ben-Gurion University (BGU) in collaboration with Columbia University inaugurated a medical school in 1998, with the expressed purpose of training physicians in International Health and Medicine (IHM). The Beer-Sheva Survey of Attitudes and Knowledge in International Health and Medicine was given to the first graduating class and three control groups. The graduates of the new program retained their positive attitudes toward IHM and increased their knowledge of the subject.

A medical school for international health run by international partners.

In early 1996, the Ben Gurion University Faculty of Health Sciences (BGU), Beer-Sheva, Israel, in collaboration with Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), New York City, United States, decided to found a second medical school within BGU, the Medical School for International Health (MSIH), to prepare students to work both in medicine and in cross-cultural and international health and medicine (IHM). Methods used to establish and jointly run MSIH include (1) defining clearly the tasks of each university according to how it can best contribute to the new school; (2) establishing an organizational structure in each university for accomplishing these tasks; (3) establishing clear communication between the two organizational structures; (4) defining outcomes to measure success; and (5) developing methods for addressing management problems. CUMC's functions were admission, public relations, and the fourth-year elective program.

A new approach to developing cross-cultural communication skills.

The need for cross-cultural training (CCT) increases as physicians encounter more culturally diverse patients. However, most medical schools relegate this topic to non-clinical years, hindering skills development. Some residency programs have successfully addressed this deficit by teaching cross-cultural communication skills in a teaching objective structured clinical examination (tOSCE) context.