In a few short weeks, a group of students in a collaborative American - Israeli medical degree program will journey from the desert city of Beersheva, Israel to eastern Nepal to spend two months preparing for careers physicians dedicated to advancing global health.

The hands - on clerkship in International Helath and Medicine that these students will engage in is the capstone event of their four years in the Ben Gurion University of the Negev M.D. program in International Health and Medicine in collaboration with Columbia University Health Sciences ( BGU - CU M.D. )

Ben Gurion University's Joyce and Irving Goldman Medical School was established in 1973 with a special mandate to develop a community7 health infrastructure for Israel's southern desert region. Based on its international reputation as a leader in community health, Columbia University joined with Ben Gurion in 1996 to expand that focus to realm of global health. Sharing common concerns on issues such as the re - emergence of infectious disease, the rapid spread of chronic and lifestyle- related disease beyond the industrialized world to developing nations, and the ability of governments and international health organizations to respond to international health crisis in an era of rapid globalization, Ben Gurion and Columbia established the world's first medical degree program with a special emphasis on international health, cross- cultural medicine and health needs of diverse population.

While in Nepal, students from the BGU - CU M.D. program will work with the Departments of Community Medicine and Family Medicine at the B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS). BPKIHS is a health sciences university with a 646 - bed teaching hospital.

Lying in the foothills of the Himalayas, BPKIHS utilizes a community - oriented approach to medical care. BGU - CU M.D. students will join Nepalese medical students, physicians, and faculty as they provide healthcare to local populations in community - based settings.

The students will rotate between various departments in the BPKIHS teaching hospital as well as district hospitals in Rangeli and Dhankuta. Each student will also complete a community health project comparing major health problems of communities living in the Terai plains and Himalayan foothills in relation to their varying environments and lifestyle.

According to Professor Miki Karplus, the international health and medicine clerkship coordinator at Ben Gurion, “The major challenge our students will face will be learning how to provide effective care for population that hasn't prior access to physicians. Traditionally, the people in these communities have relied on folk health knowledge, shamans, herbalists, and birth attendants for most of their health care needs. BPKIHS reaches out to district hospitals and clinics and encourages the local population to receive care from physicians. BPKIHS is focused on training healthcare personnel to offer the holistic service their patients are seeking”.

The BGU - CU M.D Program requires all students to complete a clinical elective in International Health and Medicine during their fourth year. The other approved sites for these two-month clerkships are Moi University Faculty of Health Sciences in Eldoret, Kenya; Christian Medical College in Vellore, India; and Addis Ababa University Medical Faculty in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Students may also select sites in Israel that provide access to Beduoin communities in the southern Negev desert region, ethnic Arab communities in the Northern Galilee area, or the Orthodox Jewish community in Jerusalem.