by Dr Michael Murphy, COO
At the beginning of July, the Medical School hosted a high-level delegation from the University of South Carolina (USC). The group consisted of: Dr Joan Gable (Provost), Dr Allen Miller (Vice Provost and Director of Global Carolina), Dr Leslie Hall (Executive Dean, School of Medicine), Dr Jeff Hall (Global Health Director, School of Medicine), Dr E J Mayeaux (Chair, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine), Dr Richard Hoppman (Director, Ultrasound Institute), and Mrs Marcia Scarmardo (Administrative Director, Department of Medicine).
The purpose of the visit was to lay the foundations for collaboration between the Medical School and USC. Discussions were held in parallel sessions centred on three themes: Curriculum Development, Research Cooperation, and Global Health Projects. A joint project has already been initiated with the USC Global Health Fellowship programme. Fellows on the programme spend two years in the USC Global Health Department working part-time as family medicine faculty and part-time as students obtaining an MPH degree. They also spend a little over three months per year working at an international partner site conducting a research/quality improvement project over the course of the two-year programme. In August, the Medical School hosted a Fellow who visited the Hope for Children CRC Policy Centre’s Children’s House in Nicosia. She will undertake a health needs assessment at the Children House and will design an intervention. In addition, she will develop a module on Primary Care Leadership for our MSc in Family Medicine degree, to which faculty from the USC Department of Family and Preventive Medicine will also contribute. We look forward to developing further links with USC in the coming years.