Global Surgery Fellowship

The Global Surgery Fellowship at the Michigan Medicine Center for Global Surgery offers a one to two year fellowship focused on training future leaders in academic global surgery. The fellowship is customized to meet the service and research career goals of each fellow with an emphasis on fostering reciprocal and culturally competent relationships with our diverse global partners. Fellows will collaborate with our long-term partners locally and in other countries, including Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Rwanda and Kenya while joining an extensive community of global health scholars at the University of Michigan, spanning across the medical school, School of Public Health, Ross School of Business, College of Engineering, and Institute for Social Research.

The mission of the Michigan Center for Global Surgery is to reduce inequalities in health due to variances in access to basic surgical care. The goal of the Global Surgery Fellowship is to train future leaders in academic global surgery with an emphasis on research and capacity building through a two-pronged approach: 

• Service Objective: Fellows will become proficient in clinical, surgical, screening and diagnostic techniques common in resource-limited settings, and they will engage in the appropriate and effective transfer of knowledge and skills. This can include participating in clinical practice with partner organizations, engaging in global surgical practice, developing and optimizing of protocols and registries, leveraging technology or telemedicine for hard-to-reach populations, building teaching skills to enable effective two-way knowledge and skills transfer or incorporating another subspecialty experience customized to goals of the fellow.
• Research Objective: Fellows will gain expertise in the research practices and priorities related to epidemiological, health services and clinical issues for surgical care in resource-limited settings. This includes participating in National Clinician Scholar Program's summer course, learning about the ethical issues of conducting research in low-and middle-income countries and conducting a mentored research project in collaboration with a U-M mentor and global partner organization.

Fellows will complete either a one or two year fellowship. The first three months will be spent in Ann Arbor, MI preparing for their trip abroad and attending the National Clinician Scholars Program summer course. The fellowship will begin July 1 each year, so fellows can participate in the summer course. This time will also be spent establishing a relationship with local mentors, creating a mentorship launch team and choosing a global partner for collaboration.

The next five months will be spent abroad in the country of each fellow's choosing. For the remainder for the program, fellows will return to Ann Arbor to complete their research projects. Fellows participating in the two-year program will have the opportunity to travel abroad a second time.

In addition to pairing fellows with research mentors, the fellowship will provide formal, applied training in epidemiology and research methods, focusing on understanding the basic elements of research methodologies in surgery with an emphasis on prevention and evidence-based links to policy. The program will provide research training related to the study of the surgical patient population through summer courses, including those offered through the National Clinician Scholar Program. 

Our program has an extensive global network, which offers opportunities for supervised training and research experience. Fellows will engage in existing research infrastructures and projects at the University of Michigan and collaborating institutions to acquire hands-on experience conducting research and supporting the development of new research initiatives and grant proposals. The fellowship aims to empower trainees to implement research projects that are submitted for intra- and extramural funding.

The program will include mentorship launch teams that provide opportunities to discuss the fellow's progress and goals with meetings every three months. Fellows will also be paired with a research mentor. Training courses focusing on the elements of successful mentorship will be provided for both mentors and mentees.