Overview & Vision
The University of Wisconsin Pediatric Residency Program’s focus on child global health and advocacy led to the launch of the Global Health Track in 2010-2011. What began as a resident-driven initiative blossomed into a longitudinal curriculum which spans all three years of residency. Its multidisciplinary nature provides residents with opportunities and relationships across the institution, the US, and abroad.
The Global Health Track for pediatric residents is designed to foster personal growth while teaching topics and providing tools that will serve them in their careers. Residents have the opportunity to engage in local global experiences in addition to international and domestic rotations in a variety of locations that emphasize ethical and sustainable partnerships.
Components of the Global Health Track
Fundamentals in Global Child Health
A critical portion of the track is an annual two-week course, typically occurring in the fall. During this protected time, track residents are provided with a comprehensive overview of key issues in global child health, both locally and abroad. The two week course involves small and large group discussion of cases, simulation, educational modules, and lectures by global health faculty and visitors. The first week of Fundamentals is multidisciplinary, including the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Family Medicine, Internal medicine, and Emergency Medicine, which provides a range of perspectives and experiences and provides track residents with more connections in the realm of global health. Our second week focuses on collaboration between the Pediatric and Family Medicine residents to discuss issues, participate in simulations, and engage in the community on issues that affect pediatric patients.
Local Global Partnerships
During the other week of Fundamentals, pediatric residents participate in local global partnerships that provide opportunities for local advocacy. Recent projects have focused on collaboration with Centro Hispano, a non-profit that provides services to Latino community members in Dane County. Residents have assisted with the curriculum development for training of community health workers (promotoras) who provide perinatal and infant education to new mothers. Track leaders partner closely with advocacy educators and experts to effectively engage track residents in local opportunities.
Strong Mentorship
Residents enrolled in the track are assigned global health mentors who help guide them throughout the course of their residency training and connect them with the resources available across UW-Madison to help them meet their personal goals. Mentors are also helpful in choosing a global health rotation.
Tuesday Night Sessions
Global Health Track residents meet one Tuesday night a month to discuss a global health topic developed by the Global Health Chief Resident. This is also the forum for an annual book club, with the book of the year chosen by track residents.
Participation in a Global Health Elective
Track residents are encouraged to participate in a global health elective during their residency training. Domestic and international opportunities are available through University of Wisconsin partnerships with Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Indian Health Services. Residents may participate in electives in other locations as well.
The Big Picture
Our residency offers the opportunity to connect with a large, active, and internationally renowned graduate and undergraduate campus network. The University of Wisconsin-Madison Global Health Institute spans the campus and brings together faculty and students from across all disciplines to address health care, food security and sustainable agriculture, water and sanitation, environmental sustainability, and “one health” perspectives that integrate the health of humans, animals and the environment. Through these networks, residents can work with and learn from professionals from an array of disciplines across campus.
Hear From Our Residents
A robust global health curriculum is one of the big reasons I pursued residency at UW and it has surpassed my expectations.
Our monthly meetings with engaging presenters and topics are something I look forward to. Likewise, the fundamentals course is extremely well organized and filled with exceptional speakers, challenging discussions and simulations to prepare us for the realities of global health work. It’s nice to know that this experience is valued by residency leadership by making it protected time for all the residents involved. Being in the global health track is important to me because it not only provides the frame work to participate in effective clinical work around the world, but to also better understand the lived experience of the varied patient population in the US.
Paige Condit, MD (PGY-3)
Through the Global Health track I've been able to learn more about the Madison area and the patient communities we serve in addition to the available local resources.
I was very excited I could join the Global Health track even after residency started. I've always loved public health and knew the track would provide great learning opportunities through the two week fundamentals course each year and monthly dinner discussion nights. Through the Global Health track I've been able to learn more about the Madison area and the patient communities we serve in addition to the available local resources. I'm very much looking forward to traveling abroad my third year to solidify my learning experience, expand my understanding of other cultures, and to improve my overall training as a physician.
Christine Brichta, MD (Chief Resident, Global Health Track Participant)
 Sabrina Butteris, MDDr. Butteris is the Division Chief for the Division of Global Pediatrics and the Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs for the Department of Pediatrics. Her work within global health has focused on curriculum development and education in the US and abroad. She co-founded and has served as the co-leader for the Global Health Learning Community of the Association of Pediatric Program Directors. She is the current Chair of the Global Health Task Force of the American Board of Pediatrics and is on the Education Committee for the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on International Child Health. She is the co-creator of Simulation Use for Global Away Rotations (SUGAR), a simulation-based curriculum to prepare those engaging in global health experiences. As a faculty member, she has worked primarily in Tanzania and Ethiopia. |
 Laura Houser, MDDr. Houser has been the Associate Director of the Pediatric Global Health Track since its inception in 2010. She is a general pediatrician at the UW Health East Clinic and also directs the General Pediatrics and Advocacy Experience (CPAX) rotation. As a young faculty member, she completed the Global Health Capstone Certificate program through the UW Global Health Institute. Her focus within global health is on implementation of neonatal resuscitation and improving newborn care. She is a trainer the Helping Babies Survive suite of newborn care courses. Her primary countries of focus are Haiti and Uganda. |
 Nicole St Clair, MDDr. St Clair joined the UW-Madison Department of Pediatrics hospital medicine and global health education teams in 2017, and assumed the role of Global Health Track Director in 2018. Her primary global health areas of interest are to equip US-based medical trainees to provide clinical care in areas with resource limitations, develop sustainable global academic partnerships, and utilize educational and clinical services to address health disparities. Prior to moving to Madison, she founded and directed the Global Child Health Training Program at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She serves in leadership roles with the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on International Child Health, the American Board of Pediatrics Global Health Task Force, the Association of Pediatric Program Directors Global Health Educators Group, and the Midwest Consortium of Global Child Health Educators to develop and promote best practices in global health education. She is the principal investigator for a multi-institutional research collaboration, Project PRIME (Psychosocial Response to International Medical Electives), a longitudinal survey-based study to measure the process of psychosocial adaptation to short-term electives for medical trainees in an effort to improve pre-departure preparation and on-site support. |
 Chelsea SchaackChelsea Schaack is the Coordinator for the Pediatric Global Health Track. She supports the Pediatric Hospitalist team as a Medical Program Assistant-Senior and coordinates the logistics for the global health track. Chelsea is a member of the Association of Pediatric Program Directors Coordinators’ Section. In order to help promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, she has chosen to champion the sustainable developmental goal of quality education; she looks forward to collaborating with multiple organizations to reach this common goal. In her free time, she enjoys participating in the Dogs On Call Read with Me program and volunteering with her beagle through the Pet Pals program at the American Family Children’s Hospital. |
 Dr. Behrmann is a general pediatrician at Group Health Cooperative. She has decades of experience in the field of global health and serves on the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on International Child Health. She has been actively involved in the University of Wisconsin Global Health Institute and served in an advisory role for the Center for Global Health’s Steering Committee. |
 Dr. Coller is a pediatric hospitalist, with global health experience in South America, Asia and Africa on USAID-funded projects looking at community health and HIV prevention among youth at the population level. He has interests in program monitoring and evaluation, international medical education, quality improvement and inpatient-outpatient-community transitions both globally and domestically. |
 Dr. Conway is a pediatric infectious disease specialist. His primary work within global health centers on vaccine-preventable diseases and community-based public health programs aimed at improving vaccine delivery. His region of concentration in his vaccine work has been East Africa. Dr. Conway is the Associate Director for Health Sciences for the University of Wisconsin Global Health Institute. |
 Dr. Demuri is a pediatric infectious disease specialist and general pediatrician. He practices general pediatrics at Access Community Health Clinic, a clinic that serves an under-served population in Madison. He has combined his expertise in infectious disease and general pediatrics globally in both Kazakstan and Cuba. |
 Dr. Hagen is a pediatric intensivist. He has worked with cardiac critical care teams and in pediatric intensive care settings providing education and patient care in Uganda, Ethiopia, Nicaragua and Peru. |
 Dr. McAdams is a neonatologist who loves caring for newborn babies. He believes every child everywhere is valuable and deserves the best opportunities to thrive. Dr. McAdams is currently the Division Chief and Fellowship Director of Neonatology and at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He has worked in Mongolia, Cambodia, Zambia, and Uganda doing volunteer medical work and promoting educational development. He is interested in developing global collaborative relationships focused on education to improve newborn outcomes. |
 Dr. Olachi Mezu-Ndubuisi is a neonatologist and vision scientist in the UW Department of Pediatrics. She is also a member of the UW Global Health Institute, and is actively involved in international global health activities. Dr. Mezu-Ndubuisi leads an annual medical outreach to a rural community in Imo State, South-East Nigeria that provides medical and surgical services, training of local health care professionals, and education on preventive health and local sustainable solutions in their resource-limited community through needs assessment research. |
 Dr. Garcia-Prats is a general pediatrician who worked full time for 13 years in Lesotho, Tanzania and South Africa (2006-2019). His interests are pediatric HIV, the management of multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB) in children and the pharmacokinetics and safety of anti-tuberculosis drugs in children. He is leading multiple observational studies and phase I and II trials of TB drugs and improved treatment and prevention strategies for TB and MDR-TB in children. |
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Past Participants
Faculty Expertise and Research
Below is a sampling of academic work by Pediatric Global Health Track faculty leaders on the role of global health in pediatric residency education. Residents have the opportunity to participate in scholarly projects with a global health focus through the track. Recent research and relevant publications can be found on the Division of Global Pediatrics webpage.
Curricula
Global Health in Pediatric Education: An Implementation Guide for Program Directors is a publication of the American Board of Pediatrics Global Health Task Force (2018). It is a comprehensive, practical resource for incorporating global health education into pediatric training programs. Dr. St Clair led the development of the guide in collaboration with Dr. Butteris and many colleagues across the international global health educator community.
SUGAR (Simulation Use for Global Away Rotations): is a suite of free educational products used to prepare medical providers to work in resource-limited settings. It was co-created by Dr. Butteris and colleague Dr. Mike Pitt from the University of Minnesota and piloted by the Midwest Consortium of Global Child Health Educators. Facilitators have been trained at over 100 institutions across the world. SUGARPREP consists of the SUGAR Trio, a comprehensive set of curricular resources for use by global health educators. The Trio is comprised of:
- SUGAR (Simulation Use for Global Away Rotations) Sim Cases: a simulation-based curriculum that focuses on common challenges, both practical and emotional, faced when working in resource-limited settings.
- PEARLS (Procedural Education for Adaptation to Resource-Limited Settings): a series of downloadable or streaming videos which demonstrate how to modify medical procedures using supplies commonly found in resource-limited settings.
- S-PACK (SUGAR’s Pre-Departure Activities Curricular Kit): a comprehensive pre-departure global health curriculum that is modular and modifiable.
Applying for the Global Health Track
Following Match Day, all incoming residents will have the opportunity to apply for the Global Health Track. Selected residents will begin participating in the track during their intern year.
For questions about the Global Health Track, please email the Global Health Chief at chiefresidents@pediatrics.wisc.edu.