Spring Programs

Click on the countries below for additional information on the program at each location:

  • Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM), in conjunction with the University of Ghana Medical School (UGMS), offers a global health elective for fourth year medical students. The global health elective will include a clinical rotation at UGMS's teaching hospital, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, in Ghana's capital city of Accra. Clerkships are available in the following departments: Medicine, Microbiology, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Anesthesia, Chemical Pathology, Hematology, Pediatrics, Pathology, Surgery, Radiology, Psychiatry, and Community Health.

    Students may elect to do a clinical elective during a 4-week block during the months of January through May (subject to availability of clinical slots). Rotations must be a minimum of four weeks, with an eight-week option available for those wishing to do a research or public health project. Students wishing to do a clinical elective must be accepted for placement by applying directly to the University of Ghana Medical School.

    Students will rotate on inpatient units as well as in outpatient clinics. By the end of the rotation, students will have a broad exposure to both tropical and chronic non-communicable diseases and will learn skills in disease diagnosis, management, and prevention. Under the supervision of attending physicians, students will manage patients and follow them longitudinally during the duration of the rotation. Students will be expected to maintain a patient log and a reflection journal as educational tools to capture the different patient encounters, knowledge, and skills they acquire.

    Students wishing to complete an independent project, such as an ALE, can arrange to stay an additional four weeks after completion of the clinical elective. Projects should be completed with the help of a faculty mentor and may be based on specific patients, health systems, public or community health issue identified by the student in close collaboration with the faculty mentor.

    There is no language requirement to participate in this program, but use of translators will be necessary at times while working in the hospital. Housing is available within walking distance of the medical school for a fee.

    Faculty Lead:
    Ylisabeth Libby S Bradshaw, DO, MS
    Assistant Professor
    Department of Public Health and Community Medicine
    Tufts University School of Medicine

  • This program places 4th year medical students at Christian Medical College (CMC), the premier private medical school in India. CMC is located in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, which is in South India. TUSM has had a long relationship with CMC in infectious disease research and medical and graduate student exchange

    CMC is collaborating with Tufts in planning and directing clinical and public health experiences for our students. Students will have the opportunity to participate in clinical rounds in areas of their interest at CMC's major teaching hospital, and to work in the Community Health and Development (CHAD) program in Vellore and its surrounding villages, where they will see and participate in public health practiced in a well-organized, community setting. Students can also participate in a project to help transfer TUSK to the CMC curriculum, teaching the faculty and students to use this unique tool.

    Those wishing to do a family medicine rotation work primarily in outpatient and community settings and have the opportunity to assist CMC faculty in developing distance-learning modules on various primary care topics for general practitioners throughout the country. Students spend a week in each of the Low-Cost Effective Care Unit (LCECU), the Community Health and Development (CHAD) program, and the Rural Unit for Health and Social Affairs (RUHSA) and have the option to spend their final week at a different specialty of interest at CMC.

    In addition to receiving approval through TUSM, students wishing to do a clinical elective must be accepted for placement by applying directly to CMC. More information can be found on the CMC website.

    There is no language requirement to participate in this program.

    Faculty Lead:
    Honorine Ward, MD
    Professor of Medicine,
    Tufts University School of Medicine
    Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases,
    Tufts Medical Center

  • Tufts Fourth-Year Global Health Elective in Panama

    In February 2020 a new exchange program between Tufts and the University of Panama Facultad de Medicina began. Up to 6 Tufts students may travel to Panama City to take rotations offered to local students, and University of Panama students may come to Boston to do the same.

    The elective is currently structured for Block 10 (four weeks). Students list their interests and our Panamanian counterparts schedule them into available rotations in University of Panama-associated hospitals. There is also the possibility of doing two 2-week blocks to fill the four weeks. Students work alongside other students, interns, and residents under the supervision of members of the physician staff in a manner analogous to what one might find here in Boston. The rotations are focused on hospital-based medicine, though out-patient experiences can also be arranged. Student presence is typically expected from 7am- 3pm, Monday-Friday; there is no on-call duty or weekend obligation.

    Housing is at local hotels, suite hotels, hostels, or apartments. Apartment rental can be arranged via Airbnb or through local listings. The Metro (subway) is safe, cheap, and very efficient for getting around. Many tourist destinations are available for weekends off.

    Spanish language skills are important. Because of the long Canal Zone presence of the United States, and the general cosmopolitan nature of Panama City, many health care professionals do speak some English. But proficiency in Spanish is essential to benefit from this elective.

    Faculty lead:
    Richard J. Rohrer, MD
    Professor of Surgery
    Tufts University School of Medicine
    Department of Surgical Services
    Tufts Medicine
    Lowell General Hospital