In affiliation with Columbia University's Health Sciences Division, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's Joyce and Irving Goldman Medical School has instituted a four year medical degree program to graduate doctors with special skills in global health and medicine. Centering around cross-cultural medicine, the required track in global medicine also includes refugee and disaster medicine, international prevention and geographic medicine. Physicians completing the program are equipped to address the emerging international health and medicine issues of the 21st century. Graduates of this program will have the requisite skills to treat individuals who are sick and to promote health and prevent diseases in populations.

The M.D. Program in International Health and Medicine is unique in its focus on cross-cultural medicine and population health. This program goes beyond the individual orientation of traditional medical training to focus on the health needs of populations. It is the only M.D. degree program that requires preventive and population medicine as they relate to international health. Course work in medicine is integrated with related areas in behavioral and social sciences.

Ben-Gurion University's network of community health facilities, outreach programs and research projects that serve the health needs of the regional populations in the Negev, the Middle East, Africa and in other countries is an ideal setting for the teaching and promotion of international health. Students gain insights into the diverse needs of each of these communities through active participation in outreach programs and clinics throughout the Negev region. In addition to the standard education for the M.D. degree, graduates will be knowledgeable about the impact of economic, socio-political, cultural, environmental and policy factors on the health of individuals and populations and how to use this knowledge to advance policies to promote health and prevent disease.

Graduates of the program are expected to provide service to help shape policies and lead research in international health, cross cultural and international community medicine. They will also be better equipped to practice medicine and shape policy for diverse populations in their own countries.

One hundred and twenty six students from the U.S.A., Canada, Venezuela, the Netherlands, Russia, Ethiopia, India and Tibet are enrolled in the school. Students from the 1998 charter class, will graduate in the Spring of 2002.

Head of School: Carmi Margolis, M.D.,M.A.
Telephone: 08-640-0929
E-mail: mcarmi@bgumail.bgu.ac.il
Website num. 1: http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/bgcu-md/Gurion.html
Website num. 2: http://fohs.bgu.ac.il/toplevel/TDetails.asp?DivType=SCL&DivID=2300