Middlesex Hospital Family Practice Residency

Middlesex Hospital Family Practice Residency
90 South Main St
Middletown, CT 06457
860-358-6305
http://www.middlesexfmrp.org/
cocallahan@midhosp.org

Our Global and Community Health track is designed to provide the learner with the opportunity to customize their interest over four years, with elective time in all years. Our philosophy is to learn how to become an integral part of improving health in our communities, whether they be domestic, abroad or both, through long-term relationships.

Location(s) of program: Elective time will be a combination of home-based and international experiences. Our primary site is in the northern jungle area of Guatemala, the Peten, where our hospital and community are paired with the Sayaxche hospital and Maya Peten health worker and midwife program. There are opportunities to work with our local Healing the Children NE surgical team. Other sites will be arranged through connections with groups or institutions who also have long-term relationships with communities. We also encourage participation in the Disaster Management Course out of Case Western Reserve University each June. Local community-based work is possible in Middletown, working within our collaborative called Opportunity Knocks on obesity prevention, oral health and behavioral task forces.

Description of field experience: Our domestic experiences can be with a variety of very strong regional collaborations such as Opportunity Knocks, the Middlesex Coalition for Children or as medical advisor to the Even Start program. These can be longitudinal over multiple years. The primary international experience in Guatemala is initially through an intense 3-week immersion program organized by Concern America that aims to provide clinical experiences in tropical medicine in an extremely rural area along with directed visits and discussions about the myriad issues that influences the health of a community or individual.

Description of didactics: There is a strong basic curriculum that uses a combination of readings, CD-based tropical medicine study, journal club/interest group discussion and Web-based modules.

Cost to individual resident: Most of the residents have been able to get scholarship for electives abroad. The program will support some registration and tuition costs for selected experiences.

Number of residents who have participated in the last two years: 1

Description of faculty involvement: The primary faculty person is Dr. Cliff O'Callahan. He is the Chair of the AAP's Section on International Child Health and has lived and worked in Guatemala. He is also the physician advisor to the local community collaborative Opportunity Knocks. Dr. Stehney is also very committed to community medicine at all levels and has had experience working in a US/Mexico border CHC setting and has been to our Guatemalan site.

Does the program accept medical students for trips? No

Does the program accept residents from outside the program for trips? Yes

Approximate time of year/duration of trips: The immersion experience is either in June or October and lasts three weeks.

Who to contact if interested in applying:
Cliff O'Callahan MD, PhD
Pediatric Faculty
cocallahan@midhosp.org
860-358-6407