WashU Medicine offers students with an interest in global health and international learning opportunities countless ways to pursue their passion and make an impact.
Learning and advocacy opportunities
In recent years, WashU Medicine students have engaged and furthered their learning in countries including Australia, Belize, Bhutan, Chile, China, Egypt, England, Ghana, Guatemala, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Malawi, Mexico, Morocco, N. China, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Peru, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, the United Kingdom and Vietnam.
Here are some of the ways you can discover and pursue your own path in global health learning:
Pursue the EXPLORE program’s Advocacy & Global Health Pathway
The Advocacy & Global Health Pathway, part of the curriculum’s EXPLORE component, supports the development of leadership and advocacy skills among future physicians to improve health and health-care systems.
- During Phase 1, students may attend optional noon-hour sessions focused on advocacy and global health themes. The required four-week EXPLORE immersion also can be global health-focused.
- During Phase 2, optional global health facets include learning and networking opportunities as well as project planning.
- During Phase 3, EXPLORE offers Global Health electives and an option for an international rotation. Up to 16 weeks of EXPLORE elective time in Phase 3 may be done internationally — for example, carrying out global health-related scholarly work. Financial support in the form of grants is available to spend elective time abroad, with preference given for rotations with a health equity focus and to students seeking distinction in Global Health/Advocacy. Global Health rotations in Phase 3 may take place at WashU’s 12 partner sites and 64 AAMC-approved global partners. Partner sites are currently located in South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Germany, Lebanon, Ireland, Ghana, France and Australia. The list of partner sites is expected to evolve as more partnerships are negotiated.
Enroll in the MD/MPA dual degree program
The combined Doctor of Medicine and Master of Public Health (MD/MPH), offered with the School of Public Health, allows medical students to take one additional year of study to gain the knowledge and skills to recognize, analyze and address health problems at a population level. Students in this combined program learn to identify the social, economic, environmental and cultural determinants of health, and they prepare to apply evidence-based approaches to disease prevention, health promotion and health policy.
Work with a faculty mentor on a research project
Many WashU Medicine faculty members have international connections and ongoing, longitudinal research projects focused on global health (see a partial list of such faculty below). Students could take a year-long research year (MD5) focused on global health. Grant funding is also available to students through the Dean’s office and the Global Health Explore Program.
Join the Global Health & Medicine student group
WUSM Global Health & Medicine (formerly known as the Forum on International Health and Tropical Medicine) is a medical-student-run group that aims to enlighten the medical community about international health concerns both by getting out into the world and by bringing knowledge home.
Through lecture series, faculty networking events, and speaker panels with global health researchers, this group provides medical students with the opportunity to create meaningful personal and professional connections in the field of global health. Several funding mechanisms through the Dean’s office exist to additionally support global health clinical and research rotations for students.
Members have the opportunity to attend the WashU Global Health Annual Conference. Students interested in long-term collaboration with the Global Health Center may also represent the medical school on the Global Health Student Advisory Committee, an interdisciplinary committee aimed towards fostering engagement in global health across the different schools of the university.
More about global health at WashU Medicine
The Global Health Center is a collaboration supported by the WashU School of Public Health and WashU Medicine’s John T. Milliken Department of Medicine. The center aims to improve global health through trans-disciplinary global-to-local programs and partnerships across WashU and around the world.
Recent global health stories from WashU Medicine
- 2025 Global Incubator Seed Grants awarded
- International trials underway for childhood malnutrition therapy developed at WashU Medicine
- Amarasinghe and multi-institutional team awarded $16.8M NIH grant for Ebola virus research
- Dahiya named to international brain tumor working committee
- In Afghanistan, poverty, lack of education associated with dementia
- Podcast: International effort aims to help those at risk for serious psychiatric illness
- Apte receives Bárány Prize from the International Society for Eye Research
- WashU research team creating and implementing poverty alleviation and public health interventions in Uganda (article and video). The inspiring work of Fred Ssewamala, PhD and his team is making a huge difference in the lives of children, families and communities in Uganda. Ssewamala is the William E. Gordon Distinguished Professor and Associate Dean for Transdisciplinary Research in the George Warren Brown School and a professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at WashU Medicine.
- A call for clinical trial globalization in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia – Perspective arguing for including more people from low- and middle-income countries in Alzheimer’s clinical trials by a working group led by Jorge Llibre-Guerra, MD, assistant professor of neurology
- WashU research spurs changes to global guidelines for feeding malnourished kids
- Gut bacterium supports growth in infants with severe acute malnutrition
- Blood test for Alzheimer’s highly accurate in large, international study
- Improving medical care in Nigeria – profile of Stanley S. Chibueze, MD ’23
- Bringing life-saving therapy to the poor; WashU Medicine spearheads collaboration to install radiation machine in Guatemala
- Fighting cancer in impoverished areas – WashU Medicine news hub
- Life-Changing Journey – WashU Medicine Outlook magazine
- A World of Health Care – WashU Medicine Outlook magazine
- New Focus on Emerging Diseases – Curiosus magazine
Explore global health stories in the WashU Medicine news hub »
WashU Medicine faculty with internationally-focused research interests
Many WashU Medicine faculty members have clinical, research and public health interests with an international focus.
Here are just a few:
Peter U. Fischer, PhD | Professor of Medicine
Research Interests: Control and elimination of neglected tropical diseases, with a special focus on helminths. Performs both lab and field research on helminth infections, with much of his field research taking place in resource-poor settings in Africa and Asia. Dr. Fischer serves as the co-principal investigator for the Death to Onchocerciasis and Lymphatic Filariasis (DOLF) project supported by the Gates foundation.
Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD | Dr. Robert J. Glazer Distinguished University Professor, Departments of Pathology & Immunology, Developmental Biology, Molecular Microbiology
Research Interests: Studying the role of the gut microbiota in defining healthy growth of infants and children, and in the pathogenesis of malnutrition, with the goal of developing successful microbiota-directed interventions to improve weight gain in children with malnutrition. Currently conducting clinical studies of these interventions in Bangladesh, India, and several African nations. Dr. Gordon’s work is supported by the Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization, and UNICEF.
Dave B. Clifford, MD | Professor of Neurology and Medicine; Melba and Forest Seay Professor of Clinical Neuropharmacology in Neurology
Research Interests: Interested in the pathophysiology and treatment of neurologic infectious diseases, with a particular emphasis on HIV/AIDS-associated neurologic diseases. Active in clinical trials involving HIV, HIV-associated cognitive disorder, HIV-associated peripheral neuropathy and pain, HIV-2, and progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy.
Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD | The Herbert S. Gasser Professor, Departments of Medicine, Molecular Microbiology, Pathology and Immunology
Research Interests: Focuses on the interface between viral pathogenesis and the host immune response. Studies the molecular basis of the immune response against globally important viral pathogens, such as West Nile Virus, Dengue, Hepatitis C, and COVID-19. Contributing to ongoing work in novel vaccine development against flaviviruses, alphaviruses, and coronaviruses.
Daniel E. Goldberg, MD, PhD | Professor of Medicine and of Molecular Microbiology; David M. and Paula L. Kipnis Distinguished Professor; Co-Director, Division of Infectious Diseases
Research Interests: Biology of malaria and in developing new drugs for malaria.
Mark D. Huffman, MD, MPH | Professor of Medicine; Co-Director, Global Health Center (Department of Medicine)
Research Interests: Improving global cardiovascular health and health care in low- and middle-income countries through the implementation of evidence-based interventions and policies and in bringing lessons learned back to the United States.