As has been reflected in some of our previous blog posts, global health is tricky to define. It encompasses all manner of areas, from refugee health, to climate change, reproductive rights and prevention of non-communicable diseases – our AMSA project groups cover but a small portion of the vast terrain that global health traverses. Importantly, global health encompasses more than inequities between nations, but those within nations, with the goal of improving health for all. With so much ground to cover, where does global health fit in to the standard medical school curriculum?

If you’re anything like me, you’ve once (or maybe a few times…. maybe several hundred), bemoaned the sheer volume of content we’re expected to learn day in and day out. From B-cell maturation to the causes of pulmonary hypertension, the life cycle of the hookworm to appropriate doses of IV and oral opioids. There is a fear that any gaps in our knowledge may render us incapable practitioners, and this in part stems concerns that adding content could replace or compromise essential curriculum outcomes. We have so much packed into our medical degrees, and a life time of learning ahead, that it’s difficult to conceive of how global health fits into our formal education.