Welcome to the mentoring site. This site is designed to serve as a means for Tufts students to contact faculty who have experience in the field of international medicine. These mentors have graciously agreed to provide students with information and contacts that they may have in other countries. Feel free to e-mail them if you have a serious interest in going abroad and doing research within the scope of their listed projects. We hope that these contacts help you in your international health endeavors.

Dr. Sherwood Gorbach

Dr. Gorbach is well known around the world for is his work in infectious disease, oral rehydration research, and field studies -- specifically in India and Bangladesh. For more information please refer to his work at the:

Tufts University School of Public Health

Tufts University School of Nutrition

Please contact Dr. Gorbach at: sherwood.gorbach@tufts.edu

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Dr. Jeffrey Griffiths

Dr. Griffiths has extensive experience in international health work. Currently, he is conducting a study in Kenya concerning the biology and epidemiology of cryptosporidiosis and another project in Ecuador based on the use of micronutrients and vitamins in improving the immune systems of malnourished children.

Dr. Griffiths received his MD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and his MPH & TM degree from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

Although Dr. Griffiths is frequently abroad, please email him if you are interested in his projects at jeffrey.griffiths@tufts.edu. Dr. Griffiths is a member of the faculty at the Tufts School of Public Health.

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Dr. Brian Lisse and Dr. Tom Hirschfield

Dr. Lisse and Dr. Hirschfield accompanied several TUSM 4th year students during the Spring of 2003 in a working visit to an impoverished mining town in Nicaragua. They held clinics, made home visits, saw prisoners in the jail and worked in the local hospital (which has no running water!)

Please contact Dr. Lisse at: lisse@massmed.org

Please contact Dr. Hirschfield at: ayong@post.harvard.edu

Project Description:

"We have an excellent site for projects, but no organized program yet. It's a gold-mining town in rural Nicaragua with toxic contaminants and a population of impoverished subsistence farmers. There are opportunities to work in clinical medicine, (TB, malaria, dengue, etc), fetal and maternal health, toxic exposures, public health, you name it. Tufts has visited the town several times and we're sketching out an extended presence. Jeff Griffiths, Jim Hyde and David Hamer are among the people who know about the program."

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Jim Hyde

Jim Hyde is a professor of Public Health at Tufts University. He has also served as the advisor of the Global Health Interest during the academic year of 2002. His work concerns health communication and anemia in Africa.

Please contact Jim Hyde at: james.hyde@tufts.edu

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Dr. Harris Berman

Dr. Berman is the Dean of Public Health and Professional Degree
Programs and Professor and Chair of the Department of Public Health
and Family Medicine. He is "happy to mentor students." Dr. Berman was a Peace Corps Physician in India, Nepal, Fiji and Western Samoa back in the '60's. He has served as CEO of Tufts Health Plan for the past 17 years. His work included internation health work through consulting projects with the State Department (USAID) and private institutions on health care financing.

Please contact Dr. Berman at: harris.berman@tufts.edu

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Dr. Michael R. Jordan

Dr. Jordan is a second year Infectious Disease fellow in the Department of Geographic Medicine at TUSM. His interests are in both international health and infectious disease research. After residency, he completed his MPH with a specialization in population/international health at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Jordan worked abroad in the Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Ecuador. Additionally, he successfully completed research in Ecuador looking at nutritional deficiencies in elderly populations and their relationship to infection. He is currently involved in HIV basic science research with projects in China and the Ukraine looking at HIV super-infection and co-infection with different subtypes of HIV in populations who continue to be at risk.

Please contact Dr. Jordan at: MJordan@tufts-nemc.org

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Dr. David Arond

Dr. Arond is trained as a pediatrician with background in international public health and behavioral medicine. He has been working in Nicaragua for 10 years in a region called san juan del sur.

Please contact Dr. Arond at: darond@massmed.org

Project Description:

Note: Dr. Arond wanted to make it clear that there is no available money to support experiences at this site.

"Description: Work in rural Nicaragua in the San Juan Del Sur area, population 20,000. Medical (primary care) and/or public health opportunity. Ability to communicate in Spanish or team up with another student who speaks Spanish required. Flexible length and focus depending on interest.

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Dr. David Hamer

Dr. Hamer spends half his time in Boston and the rest abroad. His training is in infectious disease. He is very busy and often without email contact so replies may be delayed.

Please contact Dr. Hamer at: dhamer@bu.edu

Some recent self-described project ideas:

"Here is a list of potential sites and opportunities for research for TUSM
students.

1. Tropical Diseases Research Centre, Ndola, Zambia. Multiple projects there including malaria and pregnancy, HIV-malaria interactions, impact of Bactrim prophylaxis on resistance rates in pneumococci in infants, and studies of Fansidar resistance.
   
2. Zambia Exclusive Breastfeeding Study, Lusaka, Zambia. Potential subprojects of this large study looking at HIV transmission through breastmilk.
   
3. Malaria studies (lots of possibilities) with the National Malaria Control Centre in Lusaka, Zambia.
   
4. Studies of HIV and pneumonia--Durban, South Africa.
   
5. Infection control interventions in neonatal ICUs--Manila, the Philippines.
   
6. Studies of neonatal sepsis and other neonatal diseases-multiple possible sites including Kumasi, Ghana; Karachi, Pakistan; Delhi or Chandigarh, India; or Dhaka, Bangladesh.
   
7. Inpatient pneumonia or field studies of nutritional, health, and immunological status of the elderly in Quito, Ecuador.
   
8. I may also have opportunities to do HIV work involving adherence asssessment in Lusaka, Zambia and several sites in China."
   

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