Global Health Opportunities in Anesthesia

Through the Botswana Global Health Program senior residents and fellows can complete a four-week elective at Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone, under the supervision of Dr. Catronia Stewart, Director of the Anesthesia and Critical Care rotation in Botswana. Learn more about our long-term partnership with SLH.

Senior residents have the opportunity to complete a month-long rotation at Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) in China, a 2,000-bed quaternary care facility and the top hospital in China. During this month, residents attend lectures and clinical or quality improvement meetings, learn to manage diseases rarely seen at BIDMC, learn about resource availability overseas and learn about differences in health care systems and in anesthesia residency training programs.

They also participate as team consultants for the perioperative management of patients and take part in developing educational activities and research projects. Teaching activities and surgical conferences are either conducted in English or will have translation services available.

The No Pain Labor and Delivery – Global Health Initiative is one of the longest-running international training programs in the department. Senior residents and fellows can join a team of BIDMC physicians and nurses in traveling to a hospital in China for a week of education, lectures, and hands-on training and simulation.

During this week, the team members share ideas on how to improve patient care in labor and delivery and provide training to local care providers.

Senior residents have the opportunity to apply for a SEA-HVO Traveling Fellowship to spend three to four weeks teaching anesthesia in a developing country. The SEA/HVO Fellowship is co-sponsored by the Society for Education in Anesthesia (SEA) and Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO).

Traveling Fellows may choose to rotate at any preapproved HVO site if the dates they choose to teach are dates that are available at the site. Traveling Fellows must be HVO members and travel arrangements will be administered by HVO. This is considered a clinical rotation outside the primary program and pre-approval must be obtained from the ABA Credentials Committee. Because this is an outside rotation it should normally be completed prior to the last three months of residency. Two days on either end of the rotation may be taken as travel days; otherwise residents are expected to be teaching on site all days that have been agreed upon by their program and HVO site.

Senior residents can apply for the ASA Resident International Anesthesia Scholarship Program to spend a month at a CURE Hospital in Ethiopia, Uganda, Malawi or Kenya, or a GHO affiliated site in Rwanda or Guyana. Residents will be exposed to the challenges in a low-resource, underserved area in a developing country and will educate local anesthesia providers.