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A working group of the CFMS GHP is establishing a searchable database of global health educational
opportunities that members of the CFMS can use to research opportunities, as well as provide
comments and feedback to their global health experiences. The goal is to provide information that will
allow Canadian medical students to make informed decisions about those opportunities in which they
choose to participate.

 


  




The following are functions which we feel would be necessary for an organized, easy-to-search and easy-
to-use database.

1. SSearch functionS - by drop-down menu under the following categories:

ï ˜ocation: may be easiest to divide by Canada, USA, Mexico and then continents.
÷ There is a question of whether or not we can subdivide continents further into countries
and students would be able to search ͞All of Asia͟ or ͞Vietnam͟ specifically. Posts would
have to be tagged under both continent and country.

ï Type of opportunity: research, coursework, conference, public/community and health, clerkship

(to be further subdivided by clinical areas), pre-clerkship/observership, postgraduate
opportunities)
÷ ce would like for a post to have the ability to be tagged under multiple opportunity
types.
÷ ~ ote: ͞postgraduate opportunities͟ may not be included in this database

2. Students who are members of the CFMS can post global health opportunities that they have heard
about or have participated in.
Ideally, these will have both a ͞˜ocation͟ and ͞Opportunity type͟ tagged to them so that they can be
optimally searchable.

3. Students will have the capability to post comments about global health opportunities which have
previously been posted.
These will be moderated before being posted to ensure that content/language are appropriate
(unsure at this time who the moderator(s) will be).
The comments pertaining to a global health opportunity will be linked to and listed under the
original post. For example, if someone were interested in ͞public/community health͟ in ͞Asia͟, they
could find a post for an elective with Child Family Health International (CFHI). Clicking on ͞Child
Family Health International͟ would list all of the details of the electives followed by ï number of
comments/posts by students.

4. Posts about global health opportunities will have a standardized form with some mandatory fields.
The mandatory fields are intended to provide users with enough information that they will be able
to contact the appropriate person or organization should they wish to participate in that educational
 opportunity. Judicious selection of the mandatory fields should be kept in minds to optimize the
response rate of students posting opportunities.
Please see ͞Standardized Form for Original Posts͟ below.

The comment posts that students write following the original posts will not need the standardized
form and will simply have fields titled ͞Comments͟ and ͞ ame͟ (for which the student will need to
identify him/herself).



  
 

Please comment on whether you feel the mandatory and optional fields are appropriate.

Mandatory fields
ï ˜ocation (country, city)
ï Type of opportunity (clinical, research, conference, etc.), area of specialty (for clinical electives)
ï Title/Description of elective (e.g. clinical: ͞Pediatric HIV/AIDS͟, non-clinical: ͞MoncHO͟)
ï Organization/Institution
ï Date of experience and when it is usually available (e.g. for conferences)
ï 6rief description of the elective (e.g. cho, chat, chere, How)
ï Contact information for elective coordinator, preceptor, organization, etc.

Optional fields
ï Student͛s name and contact information
ï ˜anguages spoken
ï Program cost ʹ further broken down into travel, program costs, accommodation, food, etc.?
ï Hours worked (if elective)
ï Comments section
÷ Concerns with elective
÷ Predeparture training or preparation
÷ Ability to post documents or links used to prepare for experience.
There may be liability issues if we include documents that have been copyrighted.
Therefore, we may wish to opt for a section where people can post references to
resources/documents they used, or the ability to post links leading to resources that are
accessible publicly online.

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The following existing databases are good references to look at when considering how this database
might be structured.
 i. McGill Global Health Electives database: http://www.mcgill.ca/globalhealth/studentreports/
ii. CFMS Electives Database ʹ you will need to log in for this:
http://www.cfms.org/index.asp - log in, the electives are under ͞Electives͟ in the right hand
sidebar
iii. University of Ottawa global health database:
www.actionglobalhealth.ca
iv. 6MJ Student Archives:
http://archive.student.bmj.com/international/international.php
v. AMSA International Health Electives database: http://www.amsa.org/global/ih/ihopps.cfm
vi. http://www.medelectives.ca/