Global Health

Students seeking international learning opportunities can…

• Discover how to help solve health challenges in resource-limited settings globally and locally through the Advocacy & Global Health Pathway in the EXPLORE component of the Gateway Curriculum.  
  • ​​​Phase 1 students can participate in optional noon-hour sessions focused on advocacy and global health, and/or focus the required four-week EXPLORE immersion on global health. 
  • Phase 2 students can participate in global health-related learning, networking and project planning. 
  • Phase 3 students may complete global health electives and/or an international rotation in any department of WashU’s 12 ​​partner sites and 64 AAMC-approved global partners. Jonathan Mann Fellowships are available to spend an elective month abroad; preference is given for rotations with a health equity focus and to students seeking distinction in Advocacy & Global Health. 
• Collaborate with faculty members who have international connections and ongoing research projects (see a partial list of such faculty below). Students could take a year-long research year (MD5) focused on global health. 
• Pursue a dual-degree such as the Master of Public Health (MPH)/Doctor of Medicine, which is available exclusively to current WashU Medicine medical students and is designed to train physicians with the knowledge and skills needed to recognize, analyze and address health problems at a population-level. 
• Identify learning, service and networking opportunities through the student-run group Global Health & Medicine. 
• Design your own path! 

Using these approaches, WashU Medicine students have recently studied and worked in 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, United Kingdom, and Vietnam. 

Global Health & Medicine group

The student-run WUSM Global Health & Medicine group aims to enlighten the medical community about international health concerns both by getting out into the world and by bringing knowledge home. The group facilitates international experiences for medical students, including providing scholarship funds for fourth-year students to pursue international rotations and organizing alternative spring breaks for second-year students to support public health in Nicaragua. The group also hosts fundraising events and organizes an annual international health symposium, held in conjunction with the Public Health at WashU Annual Conference.  

Faculty with international research interests

Phillip Budge, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Research Interests: Global elimination of lymphatic filariasis (LF) and other neglected tropical diseases. Current work focuses on development of diagnostic tools for these diseases that can be used in the context of global public health programs.

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.

Lisa de las Fuentes, MD
Professor of Medicine and Biostatistics
Research Interests: Dr. de las Fuentes’ ongoing clinical and translational research projects investigate the role played by common genetic variants in myocardial metabolism genes in modulating the hypertensive cardiovascular disease phenotype in humans. Of particular interest are the genetic, metabolic, and environmental predictors of left ventricular hypertrophy, left ventricular dysfunction, and vascular hypertrophy.

Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD
The Herbert S. Gasser Professor, Departments of Medicine, Molecular Microbiology, Pathology and Immunology
Research Interests: Research focuses on the interface between viral pathogenesis and the host immune response. For several years, we have been primarily focused on two globally important mosquito-borne human pathogens, West Nile virus and Dengue virus. Recently, we have begun to study another member of the same virus family, hepatitis C, which causes chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Investigations with hepatitis C virus are aimed at generating a novel mouse model and understanding the epitope specificity of protective antibodies against this virus.

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: Interested in the biology of malaria and in developing new drugs for malaria.

Mark D. Huffman, MD, MPH
Professor of Medicine; Co-Director of the Global Health Center, WashU Institute for Public Health
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.

Jean Hunleth, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor of Surgery; Instructor of Anthropology
Research Interests: The experience of caregiving and treatment seeking for infectious and chronic diseases in Africa (most specifically, Zambia) and in the United States. Especially interested in children’s experiences of and responses to illness, medicine, and health programming. Uses ethnographic and qualitative interview as well as observational methods and participatory techniques such as drawing, role playing, and photography. Her aim is to reduce disparities and improve health care delivery through focusing on the practical knowledge and lived experience of people typically left out of health programming and policy decisions.

Juliet Iwelunmor-Ezepue, PhD
Professor of Medicine
Research Interests: Using participatory and culture-centered approaches to implement and sustain evidence-based inventions in low and middle income countries.

Mark Manary, MD
Helene B. Roberson Professor of Pediatrics
Research Interests: Prevention and treatment of primary malnutrition in Africa, pathophysiology of kwashiorkor, development of novel foods to heal tropical enteropathy, use of plant genetic engineering to improve nutrition security. The locale of his work has been mostly in Malawi, although he works throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Manary is a member of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition.

Thomas A. Odeny, MD, MPH, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Oncology
Research Interests: Global oncology. Reducing disparities in eligibility for immunotherapy clinical trials and expanding treatment options for cancer in people living with HIV. Studying the effect of CD4+ T cell count on treatment-emergent adverse advents and survival among patients with and without HIV receiving immunotherapy for advanced cancer. Also studying the association between Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) subtypes and clinical severity of disease in patients with KSHV-associated diseases in North America and Africa.

Gary J. Weil, MD
Professor of Medicine and Molecular Microbiology; Gerald and Judith Medoff Professor of Infectious Diseases
Research Interests: Clinical parasitology, tropical medicine, travel medicine and global health. Laboratory conducts research on filarial nematode parasites that cause important tropical diseases such as elephantiasis and river blindness. This includes basic research on parasite biology and translational research to develop improved diagnostic tests and treatments. Weil serves as the principal investigator for the DOLF (Death to Onchocerciasis and Lymphatic Filariasis) Project supported by the Gates Foundation.