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Community Service

We believe in doing our share of serving the community and mentoring medical students and residents, through an experience that provides a different perspective of health care.

By collaborating with other healthcare professionals in the city and local community organizations, we’ve committed ourselves to supporting projects that focus on specific neighborhoods in the city. These experiences include working in the University City Hospitality Coalition with the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, as wel as working in a medical clinic in Philadelphia’s Chinatown which serves patients who have recently emigrated from various Asian countries.

One of our faculty members, Dr. Steve Larson, is currently the assistant dean for Global Health at the Perelman School of Medicine. He’s been actively involved in several community outreach programs, including establishing a clinic which provides care to migrant farm workers in the mushroom-picking industry of southeastern Pennsylvania and his latest project, developing a medical clinic for the underserved Hispanic immigrants of South Philadelphia.

One of the most exciting new developments has been the partnering with the internal medicne program in their global health tract for residency training.  This tract will allow a resident to focus their residency training on developing the skills and experiences essential for developing a career in global health.  Residents will have a required 4 wk didactics course taught by faculty from all over campus at the University of Pennsylvania including social work, history, the Wharton business school, and the nursing and medical schools.  Then they will travel to Guatemala to Santiago Atitlan to a clinic in the highlands surrounding Lake Atitlan for a 4 week experience both in their 3rd and their 4th years.  This will allow a more longitudinal perspective and provide opportunities for significant research and service projects.

International Experience

In addition to working with our Philadelphia community, the Penn EM residents are provided with some fantastic international medical experiences as well.

Residents have rotated in several different hospitals and clinical environments throughout the world, including Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand; Hospitalito Atitlan in Santiago, Guatemala; Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone, Botswana; and Everest Base Camp Clinic in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Hospitalito Atitlan has had several EM residents and faculty visit and work at this lovely clinic. Working with indigenous people of the Guatemala highlands is a tremendous privilege and this hospital is an efficient, well-run, community-based project that allows a resident to contribute from day one.

In addition, there are two full time board certified EM physicians who work there and supervise any visiting residents and students.

Princess Marina Hospital is the largest hospital in the country of Botswana. Located in Southern Africa, this country has been ravaged by AIDS but has had the foresight to utilize some of their resources towards education and medical care. They have aggressively partnered with several U.S. institutions including Baylor, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Penn has focused on education and patient care with a vision of improving the training of the future clinicians in Botswana. There is a full time Penn faculty member living in the country and the various rotating students, residents, fellows and faculty share living space in a flats just a few minutes walk from the hospital.

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