Eye-Opening Medical Missions in India and China

By Zubair Chao, MD   I had an opportunity to visit India as part of George Washington University’s International Emergency Medicine & Global Public Health Fellowship Program in April 2013. I gave lectures on endocrinology and HEENT as teaching faculty. I had already planned to go to China with my residency program and ultrasound fellowship directors, Drs. Cook and Hunt, respectively, and it was an easy decision for me to combine the trips for a firsthand view of emergency medical services in the world’s two most populated countries.   Emergency medicine is new in India, and it is not widely accepted as a recognized specialty. Only 20 emergency medicine residency positions have been approved by the Medical Council of India. George Washington University has set up a few clinical training sites, and it confers a master’s in emergency medicine on graduation. The program is essentially a three-year residency. Applicants come from a wide variety of backgrounds; many are straight from medical school, and many more are general practitioners, who are not required to complete residency training in India.   I was sent to Calicut (Kozhikode) and Kolkata (Calcutta). Calicut is a relatively small city in the south Indian state of Kerala, a place known for its greenery and the dubious distinction of having the country’s highest rate of alcohol consumption. The state has historically been a port of entry for commerce. It was also the place that the Portuguese explorer Vasco d...
Source: Going Global - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs