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Residents and Fellows

Everything you need to get involved in global health

"Between the rigorous three-year residency training program and an optional Master's degree depending on individual interests, we strive to give each of our Global Health Track residents a skill set that will allow him or her to make the greatest possible contribution to improving global health."


Cybele Renault, MD

Program Lead for Global Health, Stanford University Internal Medicine Residency Program


Internal Medicine Global Health Residency Track

Michele Barry, MD, Stanford’s senior associate dean for global health, created the residency track to give medical residents an understanding of overarching issues in global health while also showing them the individual contributions they could make to achieve health equity.

Residents gain robust clinical experience while rotating through the Internal Medicine departments of our 3-hospital system, and by participating in a 4-week Social Medicine rotation, where global health residents pack supplies into a backpack and head into the community to provide care for the homeless population of Santa Clara County. Global Health residents also have dedicated time for research with underserved populations around the world. Each resident, depending on individual interests and goals, spends six weeks overseas during their second year and as many as 12 weeks overseas during their third year caring for patients, conducting research, and building international partnerships that will continue to develop throughout their careers.

While the track can be customized to fit individual goals, all the residents finish with common experiences. Each track resident participates in a two-day intensive research retreat, led by Stanford Global Health Director of Research Dr. Stephen Luby, former Director of the Centre for Communicable Diseases at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh. Dr. Luby assists the residents as they develop their research proposals and prepare for challenges that arise in countries with unstable power grids or precarious political situations.

During their intern year, Global Health residents also participate in a two-week intensive global health elective directed by Dr. Cybele Renault, entitled “Global Health: Beyond Diseases and International Organizations,” during which track residents learn practical skills while simultaneously considering ethical issues in providing clinical service and doing research in low-resource settings, and while incorporating public health principles into their work in low-resource settings.

At our monthly Global Health / Underserved Patient Population Pathway of Distinction (POD) meetings, residents meet experts from across Stanford’s campus, all of whom are passionate about improving care for vulnerable patient populations domestically and/or overseas. Our POD meetings offer an opportunity for our residents to meet potential mentors with similar interests, and to learn about potential career paths as they think about building their careers caring for vulnerable patient populations.

“Stanford has a culture of collaboration, and the School of Medicine is integrated into Stanford’s campus,” Renault said. “Michele Barry and I look at the many resources that Stanford has to offer across disciplines, and we ask how we can best support each Global Health Track resident based on their individual interests. We aspire to give our residents a range of skills that will enable them to launch their career in global health at the end of their residency.”

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Courses in Global Health Studies