VANDERBILT GLOBAL EMERGENCY MEDICINE FELLOWSHIP

The mission of Vanderbilt's Division of Global Emergency Medicine is to collaborate with international partners to extend the department's vision of discovering, teaching and delivering patient centered emergency care to low and middle income countries through the development of locally sustainable emergency medical systems.

Our primary international partnership is at Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation in Guyana, South America. In conjunction with our local Guyanese partners, we have developed an emergency medicine residency training program and have graduated eight classes of residents who are now working as the first emergency medicine trained physicians in the country. Our global health fellow spends a significant portion of time in Guyana, working clinically, providing didactic and bedside teaching to our Guyanese resident physicians, assisting in local projects and completing a scholarly project.

Our Global EM Division consists of fellowship trained faculty members who have experience working in low and middle income countries. All of our division members are committed to working and teaching in Guyana on a regular basis. Areas of expertise among our division faculty members include EMS system development, emergency medicine residency education, curriculum development,  emergency ultrasound and simulation. Our fellowship is flexible based on the needs/interests of each fellow and the curriculum will be developed after mentoring/discussion with both fellowship director and division director.

Opportunities for ongoing global EM project involvement:

 - Global EM systems development in resource limited setting

 - Global EM residency training program development

 - Global EM residency curriculum innovation/modification

 - Global EMS system development and education

 - Global EM Fellowship development and implementation

 - Simulation curriculum development and implementation

 - POCUS in resource limited setting

 - Operations and administrative guidance in resource limited setting

The goal of the Global Emergency Medicine fellowship is to train emergency medicine residency graduates in the challenging and broad field of global health. We will ensure that our fellows get an extensive and individualized exposure to diverse areas of global health including international emergency medicine development and education, global health policy, tropical medicine, humanitarian aid and research.

Our fellows spend between three to five months abroad each year working on various projects and training. The main focus of the fieldwork involves active participation in our ongoing EM residency development project in Guyana. The exact focus of the fellow’s project will be tailored to the fellow’s interests.

The fellowship can be a one or two year fellowship, depending on the individual fellow applicant. Formal education is discussed with each fellow applicant and the educational plan is made in conjunction with the interests and future goals of the fellow. An MPH program or equivalent is encouraged of 2 year fellows. The external program at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) or other online programs are a good option given the travel requirements of the fellowship. Fellows may take a tropical medicine diploma course. Options include the Gorgas Course in Peru, the University of Minnesota/CDC program or the East Africa Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Fellows are required to conduct at least one research or scholarly project during the fellowship. We have excellent support from the division of EM research. Collaboration with researchers at the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health is also an option. Fellows are expected to write a manuscript of publishable quality.

Global EM fellows receive a Vanderbilt clinical fellow instructor appointment at 0.5FTE and work in the Vanderbilt ED as an attending physician supervising/teaching medical students and residents.