Medical School for International Health in the Middle East
Jon Mendelson explains more about this innovate school
It was a jolting ride over the rocky desert to the Bedouin village. A small group of first-year medical students and a family physician trekked off the main roads to visit a local Arab Bedouin patient half an hour from the city limits. Scattered mostly around the northern Negev Desert in Israel, many modern Bedouin retain some of their ancestral nomadic desert lifestyle. Others have moved into towns, leaving much of their old way of life behind. In the rural areas, extended families live in small communities of tents or tin houses, with their flocks of animals corralled by the side of their homes.
Soroka Hospital, at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Be’er Sheva, provides the Bedouin with healthcare through Israel’s socialized medical system. As the driver finished navigating the four-wheel drive Jeep through the last ravine before the village, the patient and her family emerged from the closest tent. The physician and her students were greeted with piping hot tea, laden with sugar. Two teenage boys, puffing on cigarettes, led the group to sit on a heavy wool carpet spread across the desert floor. The physician carefully interviewed the old matriarch about her diabetes. As the students listened intently to the Hebrew and Arabic exchange, the physician stopped occasionally to translate into English.
Such experiences are common for the mostly American and Canadian students at the Medical School for International Health (MSIH). Established in 1996, MSIH prepares future physicians to work with diverse populations across the globe. MSIH is a collaborative effort between Ben-Gurion University and Columbia University Medical Center. It aims to train doctors with special skills in primary care and community, preventive, and population-based medicine.
The four-year curriculum is constructed in a manner similar to traditional American M.D. programs, with the first three years spent in Israel at Ben-Gurion’s Be’er Sheva campus. During the fourth year, students take clinical electives at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, along with other sites in the United States.
Students are also required to do a two-month clinical elective at an affiliated hospital in Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Peru, Vietnam, or Nepal. Students take all steps of the United States Medical Licensing Exam, and graduates have a history of successful residency placements.
Living and working in a foreign culture is a demanding experience. Students must adapt to a different way of life and learn to communicate in new languages amidst unfamiliar local health practices. Many find this challenging. While lectures are taught in English, communicating outside of the classroom is often difficult. MSIH offers conversational Hebrew to all first year students to aid in their academic and personal lives. However, shopping at the grocery store or paying bills can take a special effort.
Medically oriented Hebrew is taught in the second year as students practice their new language and examination skills in the hospital wards. Be’er Sheva, though, offers a unique challenge as much of the population speaks Russian, Arabic and Amharic (spoken by Ethiopian immigrants), as well as Hebrew. Third year students frequently request help from Russian-speaking nurses to communicate with patients. Sometimes fellow students in other classes are asked to come to the ward to help translate Arabic or Russian. Success on the wards requires a certain amount of “chutzpah” from the students.
The faculty appreciates this assertiveness. The school’s administration believes that student input is an important part of curriculum development. The faculty is especially receptive to students’ suggestions in developing the International Health and Medicine electives. Students take four of these electives in the preclinical years in topics such as “Poverty and Health”, “Chinese Medicine”, “Malaria”, “Maternal and Child Health”, “Environmental Management”, “Disaster Medicine”, and many others. Students have also brought new courses to the school, such as the Healer’s Art. This elective is designed to address the growing loss of meaning experienced by physicians under today’s health systems. The unique collaborative relationship between faculty and students offers MSIH continual refinement in its international focus.
The challenge of studying in Israel is unifying for the student body. They recognize the important personal and professional growth that comes with living in a foreign culture. Many share the idea of a new global landscape; as people and nations are increasingly connected through technology, financial markets and travel, the success and health of one society affects all the others. The globalization of humanity necessitates practicing healthcare with an international focus.
MSIH and its students are dedicated to this principle of global health. Students have traveled to the Indian state of Maharashtra to explore diverse aspects of the Indian healthcare system. Most recently a number of students volunteered, during their summer vacations to work in Tanzania, the Peruvian Amazon and Ethiopia. Back home, the Middle East is a vibrant backyard. Its confluence of cultures and languages offers students the opportunity to practice the skills and art of medicine in an ideal environment.
Jon Mendelsohn, MS III
Medical School for International Health
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Beer Sheva, Israel
jsmendelsohn@gmail.com