A global approach to medical training

Adam McInnes’s medical school practicum in Mozambique was lifechanging.

The second-year University of Saskatchewan medical student travelled to Missinga, a district in southeast Mozambique, last June as part of a three-member team from a global certificate program called Making the Links, offered to a few medical students at the U of S.

Shortly after he arrived in Missinga, he was surprised to be consulted by the head of a chickenraising project about using solar panels and batteries to power heat lamps in nearby Tevele.

“Somehow, they found out I have an interest in engineering, and wanted to know if I had any ideas,” said McInnes.

Over his six- week practicum, he brainstormed with community leaders about other projects, including one to power a flour mill with hydroelectric power generated from a small river that runs through Tevele.

The medical situation in Missinga was not short on surprises, either.

McInnes said he got a chance to learn, handson, the impacts of social determinants of health like education, nutrition and early childhood education.

“It’s phenomenal what difference those connections make in someone’s life,” he said.

Because of a shortage of resources, doctors practising in the lowincome communities of Mozambique face challenges in diagnosing conditions without laboratory tests, McInnes said.

One of the shocking conditions the medical student confronted faceto-face was the very high rate of HIV/AIDS in its advanced form.

“Chances are, people with HIV in Canada would never reach that stage,” he said, adding he was appreciative of the work health practitioners were doing in the field of HIV/AIDS, including visiting sufferers in their homes.

Ryan Meili, director of the global certificate program, said Making the Links connects students to under-served communities in the remote areas and inner cities of Saskatchewan as well as developing countries like Mozambique, Nicaragua and Vietnam.

Each year, 10 medical students are selected. In addition to extra in-class training about issues like social determinants of health and global health initiatives, they do three main practicums.

The practicums are done in a student-run clinic in Saskatoon called Student Wellness Initiative Towards Community Health (SWITCH), in the northern aboriginal communities of Dillon, Ile-a-la-Crosse or Pinehouse, and finally an international health practicum like the one McInnes completed.

The objective of the program is to foster burgeoning relationships that will develop into long-term connections between low- income communities and medical practitioners.

“Individuals who go through the program will get a deeper understanding of the life context of their patients,” said Meili, adding this helps graduates of the program to bear their patients’ social conditions in mind when prescribing medical interventions.

While the program has been expanding since it started in 2005, Meili would like to see it grow to include every medical student and other faculties.

But that’s not easy to accomplish.

“There are always resource limitations both at the university and our host communities. ”Meili said.

When students return from their overseas practicums, they are expected to raise funds to support projects in the developing countries they visited.

McInnes will be involved in a fundraiser this fall, to help raise money for community projects in Missinga.