Penn residents and faculty are engaged in Global Health initiatives all over the world. Faculty provide mentorship, project and elective opportunities, and connections to a variety of organizations within and external to Penn. Other activities include Journal Club (with colleagues at CHOP), resident/faculty involvement with Center for Global Health activities, and collaboration/overlap with activities in other Divisions (i.e. Ultrasound) and other Departments (i.e. Internal Medicine).
Dr. Joseph Leanza (class of 2021; Fellow, 2021-23) worked with Global Emergency Care in Uganda, Global Response Management at the US/Mexico border and in Iraq, International Needs in Ghana, the Certification Program in Emergency Medicine (CPEM) in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and the Vingroup-Penn Alliance in Vietnam. He also provided first aid training in the Galapagos.
Dr. Maham Munawar (Fellow, 2022-2024) has worked with International Needs in Ghana; the University of Botswana in Botswana, along with Dr. Megan Rybarczyk and Dr. Julia Schiff (class of 2024); the Department of Radiology in Nigeria; Global Response Management in Iraq; and CPEM and training in the WHO-ICRC BEC course in Pakistan.
Dr. Priya Arumuganathan (Fellow, 2023-2025) has worked with the CPEM program and on cardiovascular research and a telemedicine project in Pakistan. She has also worked in Ghana and Botswana.
Dr. Rmaah Memon (Fellow, 2024-2026) has worked on a telemedicine project in Pakistan. She also leads initiatives to teach the WHO-ICRC BEC course.
Megan Rybarczyk, MD, MPH works with teams in Karachi, Pakistan to provide training in Emergency Medicine (i.e., CPEM and WHO-ICRC BEC course) as well as to collaborate on a variety of research projects. Dr. Charles Kemmler (class of 2020) assisted with the training in 2019 and Dr. Julia Schiff (class of 2024) assisted with the training in 2023. She is a recipient of a Penn Global grant for work in Botswana and the SAEM GEMA grant for cardiovascular research in Pakistan. Dr. Rybarczyk is currently the PGEM Fellowship Director.
Over the last several years Jeffrey Kramer, MD, MSc has been the medical director for a project running mobile medical clinics in Ghana. Working with International Needs, a Christian global development organization, a group of American and Ghanaian medical professionals team up to provide healthcare to villages that have little or no access to medical care. Each year they spend ten days travelling to remote villages in the Volta Region of Ghana. Two years ago, they began incorporating ultrasound in their care. The clinics are high volume – up to 700 patients a day are seen by only six physicians. Dr. Chidinma Nwakanma has also been involved with this project.
Dr. AJ Dean (retired) has helped develop EM training in Guatemala and is a leader in ultrasound training in low-resource settings. Dr. Nicole Tyczynska collaborates with partners in Poland for EM development. Dr. Cesar Soto has worked with MedGlobal. Dr. Melissa Villa conducts work in Peru. Dr. Utsha Khatri (class of 2019; alumna of the National Clinician Scholars Program) has worked in Kathmandu, Nepal; Dr. Erik Bluntinger (class of 2019) completed a rotation at Khayelitsha Hospital, South Africa; Dr. Katherine Brodie (class of 2021) studied medical Spanish in Spain; Dr. David Shapiro (class of 2022) provided primary and acute care in Guatemala; and Drs. Mobolaji Fowose (class of 2024) and Julia Schiff (class of 2024) worked with International Needs in Ghana. Dr. Keiry Rodriguez (class of 2025) completed a rotation in Guatemala. Dr. Moizza Shabbir (class of 2025) completed a rotation in Pakistan. Both Dr. Rodriguez and Dr. Shabbir received the Dr. Suzanne Shepherd Memorial Scholarship for their rotations.