Recognizing that many undergraduate students lost clinical opportunities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Global Medicine faculty at the University of Minnesota Medical School began an internship program in the summer of 2020. The goal was to prepare students for future careers in medicine and public health through professional development, global health education, and major projects. Interns from Macalester College and St. Olaf College participated remotely in this Global Health Scholars program for 8 weeks. We studied global health fundamentals and heard from a variety of health professionals about their careers during our Zoom meetings. Macalester students also worked to create interactive online learning modules. These modules have been incorporated into the new University of Minnesota Clinical Tropical Medicine & Global Health Curriculum. Physicians who complete the program are able to take examinations for a tropical medicine certification.

One of our primary goals for the online learning module was to make it as interactive as possible. We created highly detailed storyboards for our modules and worked closely with an academic technologist, Beth Scudder, who put them together. I chose the neglected tropical disease onchocerciasis, or river blindness, as my focus. Neglected tropical diseases are a group of preventable and treatable parasitic, viral, and bacterial diseases that affect the world’s poorest people. Onchocerciasis is a disease caused by the parasite Onchocerca volvulus which is transmitted through the bite of blackflies that live and breed near rivers. It is endemic in many African countries and in Brazil, Venezuela, and Yemen. When left untreated, it can cause severe itching, skin atrophy, and inflammation in the eyes which may lead to irreversible blindness. Symptoms can be debilitating and contribute to a cycle of poverty. Onchocerciasis is the second leading infectious cause of blindness globally with an estimated 20.9 million cases in 2017, 1.15 million of which experienced vision loss. Onchocerciasis is most commonly treated with a broad-spectrum anti-parasitic drug called Ivermectin which is delivered via mass drug administration.

After extensive research, I created five lessons based on the information most important for the clinicians preparing for their certification exam: epidemiology, life cycle of the parasite, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment. Learning objectives and short assessments accompanied each lesson with a summary “disease card” available for quick review upon completion of the module. I used a variety of formats to present information and assess short-term retention including animations, interactive maps, videos, photo galleries, and click-and-drag matching assessments. I also conducted interviews with Dr. Bill Stauffer, director of the Global Health Scholars program and expert in travel and tropical medicine, and Dr. Bobbi Pritt, a leading parasitologist. Dr. Bobbi Pritt discussed the life cycle of the parasites that cause onchocerciasis which I edited into a video and included in the module. Dr. Kristina Krohn was our primary mentor throughout the internship and provided invaluable guidance and support.

I am grateful that, despite the pandemic, my peers and I were able to have an enriching public health experience in the summer of 2020. Our prep work, seminars, and discussions allowed me to stay connected and learn more about global health and culturally sensitive healthcare from the experts who ran our program. Although I have done lots of research and literature review during my academic career, I had never before needed to provide highly accurate and updated clinical information to physicians. Through this internship, I also gained confidence in my graphic design/creative abilities, which is an area in which I had little experience. The professional development aspect of the internship including exposure to a wide variety of public health careers was incredibly helpful to me and solidified my interest in global health.