Bram Wispelwey trains community health workers in Palestine.

Thanks to a new Global Health track in Hospital Medicine, hospitalists have the support they need to practice at the Brigham and work to improve health around the world.

The first cohort of three Global Health track physicians began at the Brigham in July, with projects supporting communities in Ethiopia, Guatemala and Palestine. In 2017, Peter Rohloff, MD, PhD, an attending hospitalist, established the track to expand opportunities for his colleagues to be a part of both the Brigham and the global health community.

“The vision for this track is to help junior faculty with a strong interest in global health take the next steps in advancing their careers,” said Rohloff, who is also the founder of Maya Health Alliance, a nonprofit that addresses the health care needs of Guatemala’s most impoverished communities. 

He added that the track helps clinicians connect with mentorship and development opportunities at the Brigham and have a clinical home at the hospital – a goal shared by the Division of Global Health Equity. Since its founding in 2001, the division has provided an anchor for faculty who wanted to work globally but remain active clinically and academically in the U.S. 

Among those in the first cohort of physicians on the Global Health track is Bram Wispelwey, MD, MS, who completed the Brigham’s Doris and Howard Hiatt Residency Global Health Equity and Internal Medicine earlier this year. When not practicing at the Brigham, Wispelway is caring for Palestinians and helping mend fractured health care systems in Palestinian refugee camps. 

To address the complex issues facing refugees in these camps – which lack dedicated local clinics or consistent access to affordable primary care – Wispelway helped launch and monitor a Community Health Worker program. This work aims to improve relationships and rebuild trust between physicians and patients, strengthen the health care delivery system and improve the health of refugee families. He now divides his time between the Brigham and Palestine.

Jennifer Goldsmith, MS, MEd, administrative director of the Division of Global Health Equity, helped establish the partnership between Hospital Medicine and the division. She described the global health track as “highly customizable to meet the needs and interests of individuals and to offer opportunities for global health research and field work, didactics and career mentorship.” 

“We’re delighted to work together to build on the mentorship and global health opportunities at the Brigham by creating this new career step,” Goldsmith said.