Global Health in U.S. Internal Medicine: Pulling Strands into a Web.

Abstract

U.S. global health experienced marked growth over the last 25 years; however, within internal medicine in the U.S. there has been an absence of coordination across global health initiatives in different specialty groups. This contrasts with U.S. pediatricians, who have fostered connections across their specialty leading to impactful research, guidelines, and resources for pediatricians engaging in global health. We argue that U.S. internists with global health programs would benefit from increased collaboration, and believe this could specifically help to: 1) promote best practices across the field, including in ethics and advocacy; 2) share ideas to amplify the impact of individual programs; 3) increase multilateral global health projects that bring together multiple institutions or organizations; and 4) simplify the processes for international organizations seeking internal medicine partnerships. We provide potential next steps and hypothesize that other specialties across academic medicine could also benefit from such networking, especially given recent reductions in financial and political support for global health within the U.S.