Increasing numbers of young physicians aspire to dedicate their careers to the health of impoverished people in the US and abroad. In 2004, DGHE created a unique residency program to address this growing interest. The Doris and Howard Hiatt Residency in Global Health Equity and Internal Medicine is a comprehensive four-year program that includes training in internal medicine; coursework in research methods, public policy and global health advocacy; and research and patient care experiences in impoverished settings. Already, fieldwork has taken residents to Haiti, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, as well as to Boston’s urban neighborhoods. The residency program honors DGHE co-founder and respected advocate Howard Hiatt, MD and his wife Doris.

Residents in the program share a deep commitment to fighting disease in the world’s poorest places, and a belief that, as one resident puts it, “In the fight for social justice, each of us will have a crucial role to play.”

Despite an enormously demanding schedule in Boston, residents in the program are already engaged in lifesaving efforts around the world. Their projects target the deadliest treatable diseases—AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria—in some of the world’s poorest countries. Among their accomplishments:

• Starting a comprehensive malaria treatment project in rural Rwanda;
• Assisting in hurricane relief efforts, training health workers, and improving tuberculosis care in Chiapas, Mexico;
• Documenting successful efforts in Haiti and Rwanda to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child;
• Planning and designing a new hospital in impoverished rural Haiti;
• Improving tuberculosis detection and diagnosis capabilities in Rwanda.

Response to the new residency has been enthusiastic, attracting national attention from universities and teaching hospitals. Interest among young physicians is strong. With solid institutional support and thanks to the generosity of individual donors, program enrollment has grown from 2 residents in 2004 to 15 in 2007. Applicants to the program still far outnumber available slots, however.

This promising beginning suggests a bright future, extending Doris and Howard Hiatt’s commitment and compassion to the next generation of physicians and improving the health of patients most in need around the world.