The Department of Surgery has developed a global surgery elective rotation targeted towards trainees interested in a future academic career in global health/surgery. The overarching goal of the rotation is to help train compassionate individuals who can begin to understand the myriad factors that drive disparities in surgical care delivery and appreciate the vast interconnected network of disciplines and people that go into improving surgical care access. A further goal is to learn how to work with local populations and stakeholders to identify mutual goals and local strengths and challenges to improve access to medical and surgical care through guided and targeted clinical, educational, and research efforts. Importantly, this rotation is not meant to train surgeons to perform mission trips which are often unsustainable and have limited impact on long-term surgical care improvement.

The rotation is based out of Tamale, Ghana at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) and University for Development Studies (UDS) through NYU’s partnership with the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) consortium (Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare Ghana | NYU Langone Health). This partnership works toward mutually beneficial outcomes for all partners—improving the health and wellbeing of people in communities in northern Ghana; educating tomorrow’s medical experts worldwide; and jointly researching breakthroughs that will inform improvements in population health around the world.

To this end, the rotation entails a longitudinal experience where residents visit the partner site twice during their training alongside NYU faculty who have ongoing collaborations with TTH/UDS faculty. The goal is to help build lasting and meaningful connections with continued engagement alongside NYU faculty with TTH/UDS partners even after the rotation has ended. Additionally, a dedicated curriculum is delivered alongside the rotation based on a set of core competencies aimed at laying the foundation for residents to begin to develop the necessary skills to work in the diverse and growing field of global health. It is expected that residents accepted for the rotation will engage in all required educational activities and commit to the two separate longitudinal rotations.

Residents apply for the rotation during the second half of their intern year with the expectation that they will rotate during their second and fourth clinical years. Dedicated global surgery faculty within the Department of Surgery travel with the residents during their rotations. The faculty also oversee the rotation and guide, educate, and train the residents during their time in Ghana and in the U.S. The rotation and travel is fully funded and has received full ABS/ACGME approval, such that time spent in Ghana counts towards overall graduation requirements.