Countries

Seven countries in three continents host interns from the exchange program. Read more information about participating institutions.

Argentina

Brazil

Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ)

The involvement of FIOCRUZ scientists in public health and policy issues has earned FIOCRUZ investigators credibility in the public eye and prestige in the national and international scientific community.

According to the U.S. Institute for Scientific Information (SIS), FIOCRUZ investigators are among the most frequently cited research scientists internationally. In the area of education, FIOCRUZ is the principal non-university institution in Brazil responsible for developing human resources in the health field. It has trained nearly 15,000 professionals who are contributing to the improvement of health services in the country and abroad. At present, more than 1,300 students are enrolled in its graduate-level courses every year and conduct medical and scientific research throughout the nation.

Chile

The Ministry of Health of Chile and the Chilean Security Association (Asociación Chilena de Seguridad – ACHS) are both located in Santiago, the nation's capital. Representing the public and private sectors, respectively, both agencies present outstanding and highly complementary opportunities for intervention and prevention research and are linked through cooperative agreements with the University of Chile.

The Ministry of Health of Chile has a longstanding tradition of public health research in addition to supporting a primary health care system for a large portion of the Chilean people. In the area of environmental health, the Ministry supports research, develops standards, issues regulation, and conducts surveillance activities. Interestingly, unlike in the U.S., the Ministry also has significant enforcement powers in environmental and occupational health which are shared with the Ministry of Labor. The Ministry of Health has environmental and occupational health offices in all 29 of its regional services throughout Chile. Each of these regional offices has a physician and at least 1 engineer/industrial hygienist dedicated to environmental and occupational health.

The Chilean Security Association (Asociación Chilean de Seguridad, ACHS). The Chilean Security Association is the largest of three private, non-profit occupational health care organizations that provide primary health and occupational health care to two-thirds of the formal Chilean working population and their families. By law, private employers in Chile must buy comprehensive health care from one of these institutions, known as mutuales. The mutuales provide primary and specialty health care, occupational health services, industrial hygiene and safety, and workers' compensation to employees through contracts with the employers. This unique system ties treatment and compensation with preventive services in a structure that rewards prevention of disease and injury. ACHS is the largest mutual in Chile, providing services to 1.3 million Chilean workers in diverse industries. It has a large network of hospitals, clinics, and preventive services throughout Chile. ACHS has a research institute in its organization as the focal point for 80 current research projects in its organization in collaboration with outside institutions.

Ireland

The division provides the only course in Radiation Therapy in the Republic of Ireland and is therefore providing a national service. Significant international links have been developed over many years, including the Radiation Oncology Branch (ROB) and Radiation Oncology Sciences Programme (ROSP) at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Washington DC, the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ESTRO), and the Dresden Centre for Radiation Research in Oncology (ZIK Dresden).

Mexico

The National Institute of Public Health (INSP) in Cuernavaca is one of ten national health institutes within the federal government of Mexico. It was created in 1987 as the pre-eminent national center of research and teaching in public health for the country of Mexico. It houses the School of Public Health of Mexico, the oldest and largest public health school in Mexico, which pre-dates INSP having been founded in 1922. The School of Public Health is widely recognized as one of the finest in Latin America and offers a variety of doctoral and masters' degrees. INSP has a full-time faculty of over 100 scientists and a total staff of 450. INSP sponsors an average of 60 research projects every year, generating more than 100 original papers, books, and book chapters annually, on a wide variety of topics including malaria, tuberculosis, women and child mortality, viruses, cancer, sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS, vaccine development, health and nutrition, health policy, environmental and occupational health. INSP is divided into five centers: Center for Populations Health Research, Center for Infectious Diseases Research, Center for Health Systems Research, Center for Nutrition and Health Research, and Center of Information for Health Decisions.

The INSP is also home to Mexico's Environmental Pediatrics Unit (UPA). The UPA's mission is to protect children from pollution, strengthen environmental public health activities, and increase knowledge on environmental health issues in Mexico. The UPA achieves this mission by training environmental health scientists and researchers and by collaborating with institutions in Mexico and abroad to conduct research in pressing environmental health topics. Community outreach, both to professionals and lay persons, is also a central part of UPA activities.

Spain

The Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) of the University Hospital Virgen of the Arrixaca, located in Murcia, Spain, is dedicated to the diagnosis, prevention, and management of pediatric diseases linked to the environment.

PEHSU scientists conduct education and outreach on pediatric environmental health for professionals and communities alike and collaborate with local and national authorities to reduce pediatric exposures to environmental pollutants. PEHSU works to join the prevention, treatment, and management aspects of pediatric environmental diseases and conducts research to this end.

South Africa

School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town

Located in Cape Town, the School of Public Health and Family Medicine hosts multidisplinary research into major health problems of regional and national importance. The school has researchers trained in the disciplines of epidemiology, biostatistics, demography, economics, management studies, anthropology, sociology, and psychology, as well as medicine. Research activities and opportunities are varied and multiple.