Aga Khan Hospital, Tanzania
The Department of Family Medicine has an informal link with Aga Khan Hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We are hoping to formalize this link in the near future to facilitate family medicine resident and clerkship student rotations.
Guatemala Pilot Project
In the summer of 2006, an overseas elective to Guatemala was set up for medical and nursing students from McGill University. This was a pilot project and a partnership between the McGill University medical faculty and a North American- based non-government organization called Pueblo Partisans. Six medical students and one nursing student, later joined by three other medical students, met with Dr. Chirgwin, preceptor for the elective, once a month for eight months in preparation for the trip. The group meetings covered basic Spanish, international health issues and socio- political issues of Central America. The elective lasted from March to April, 2007 with Pueblo Partisans arranging medical clinics at different sites in Guatemala for the McGill students in collaboration with nursing students from University of Victoria. The students learned to do basic history-taking and physical exams in Spanish in settings with limited diagnostic and therapeutic means. Although the experience will not be repeated with this NGO mainly because of staffing issues, it has set a model for properly preparing medical and nursing students for overseas electives and finding ways to have constant partners in other countries.
Lithuania Elective
For more information, please contact: alan [dot] pavilanis [at] ssss [dot] gouv [dot] qc [dot] ca (Dr. Alan Pavilanis).
McGill University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
The McGill Department of Family Medicine has a “sister” relationship with its counterpart at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheva, Israel. This collaboration, which was designed to facilitate ongoing dialogue and exchange, involves projects in the detection of elder abuse in primary care and the evaluation of family caregivers’ assessment of different sites for palliative care. For more information, please consult http://fohs.bgu.ac.il/
Previous International Collaborations
McGill - OSPeCon Collaboration
The Department of Family Medicine at McGill and OSPeCon, a union of construction workers in Argentina, have completed a CIDA Technology Transfer Project that addresses problems of family violence, alcoholism and women’s health by applying a COPC (Community-Oriented Primary Care) methodology. Project activities included a series of national seminars, local workshops, visits to Canada, and ongoing consultations. More information on OSPeCon can be found at http://www.uocra.org.ar/noticias/mcgill.asp
McGill - CENDEISSS
(Centro Nacional de Desarrollo Estratégico e Información en Salud y Seguridad Social) Collaboration
This project was initiated at the request of CENDEISSS to help develop an academic teaching program for the training of Family and Community Medicine physicians in Costa Rica. This collaboration, which took place between 1987 and 1994, helped to establish a corps of physicians and teachers trained in Family and Community Medicine in Costa Rica. The presence of McGill also enhanced the profile and delivery of Family and Community Medicine in this country.
Presentations Related to Collaborations
Brigitte Côté
Côté, B. Animation: "L’amélioration des compétences: des messages clés à retenir" dans la journée thématique de santé internationale sur le renforcement des compétences, 8ièmes Journées Annuelles de Santé Publique, Montréal, November 30, 2004.
Côté, B. “La Evaluacion de Tecnología Sanitaria: Concepto, Metodología y Experiencia en Canada”, Ministerio de Salud, Montevideo, Uruguay, November 8, 2004.
Côté, B. “Atención Primaria Orientada a la Comunidad: Experiencia Canadiense y Argentina”, Jornadas de formación del CASMU, Montevideo, Uruguay, November 9, 2004.
Côté, B. “La Evaluacion de Tecnología Sanitaria: Concepto, Metodología y Pertinencia para Atención Primaria” Universidad de Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay, November 9, 2004.
Côté, B. “Experiencia Canadiense en Atención Primaria Orientada a la Comunidad: Diabetes en la Comunidad Autóctona y Urbana”, VIII Jornadas Nacionales de Atención Primaria de la Salud y 1ro Encuentro Nacional del Programa de Promoción y Prevención, Buenos Aires, Argentina, November 4, 2004.
Côté, B. “Atención Primaria Orientada a la Comunidad: el Diagnostico de Salud local en Québec, Canada” VIII Jornadas Nacionales de Atención Primaria de la Salud y 1ro Encuentro Nacional del Programa de Promoción y Prevención, Buenos Aires, Argentina, November 5, 2004.
Mark Yaffe
Invited discussions on Elder Abuse with the Life Course and Ageing Division of the World Health Organization, Geneva, December 14-16, 2004.
Formal presentation on the "Development and Validation of a Suspicion Index for Elder Abuse for Physicians' Use: Results and Implications" to combined rounds of the Life Course and Ageing Division of WHO, the Centre de Gérontologie of Geneva University and the Geneva Interdisciplinary Academic Network, December 14, 2004.
Invitation from Life Course and Ageing Division of W.H.O. to be part of W.H.O. - sponsored symposium at the 18th Congress of the International Association of Gerontology, Rio de Janeiro, June 26-30, 2005. The symposium was entitled “WHO Approaches to the Prevention of Elder Abuse".
Yvonne Steinert
Steinert, Y., Ceitlin, J., Nasmith, L., Villagra, R., Haiek, L., Côte, B., Marti, R. and Siede, J. COPC in action: A collaboration between Canada and Argentina. Symposium presented at the 17th World Conference of Family Doctors (WONCA), Orlando, October 2004.
Steinert, Y. Promoting collaboration between Canada and Argentina. Invited presentation at the 17th World Conference of Family Doctors (WONCA), Orlando, October 2004.