International health focus for Ware native

WARE - Michael Daignault departed recently for Israel where he will join an international force of medical doctors being trained to address global health issues.

Daignault will attend the Medical School for International Health, a collaboration of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Columbia University Medical Center.

"I strongly believe that medical schools should prioritize global health by incorporating it into the medical curriculum and clinical training," Daignault said. "The Medical School for International Health has long succeeded in this endeavor and is a model for U.S.-based medical schools that are just beginning to scale-up their global health programs."

The Medical School for International Health is the only medical school in the world specifically created to train future doctors to provide health care for populations throughout the globe.

In addition to basic American-based medical curriculum, students learn cross-cultural communication, nutrition in developing worlds, disaster relief, populations-based medicine, and bioterrorism and health.

Students spend their first three years attending classes at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's Beer Sheva, Israel, campus and begin clinical training within the Israeli hospitals and Bedouin population clinics.

During the fourth year, students complete clinical training at Columbia University Medical Center's hospitals and choose an international clinical elective in Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Nepal, Peru, Uganda or Vietnam.

After graduating from Cathedral High School in Springfield, Daignault completed undergraduate studies in international health at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. He has volunteered as an emergency medical technician and published two global-health-themed papers in the Georgetown Journal of the Environment.

In 2003, Daignault joined the Peace Corps, working as an adviser to the National AIDS Program in St. Lucia. He later remained in the eastern Caribbean to help establish and lead a multi-country project to facilitate access to treatment and care for HIV-positive patients in St. Lucia, Dominica and Guyana. Daignault also has worked for Doctors Without Borders and its Campaign for Access to Essential Medicine....