Mentor Areas
Pediatrics, infectious diseases, global health, epidemiology, public health, tuberculosis, neonatal sepsis, dengue, HIV.
Description:
See this link for a previous Penn undergrad project: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37746093/
CHOP Global Health and our Dominican partners have developed a program that aims to improve the health of children in the rural town of Consuelo. The program has several key pillars that make this possible. These include:
Nutrition. We provide food supplements and education to malnourished children and their families in the barrios. Since the start of the program in 2009, incidence of malnutrition has reduced from 10 to 2 percent.
Breastfeeding. We promote exclusive breastfeeding in new mothers through peer support groups and home visits during pregnancy and after the birth of the child. Exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, and complementary breastfeeding up to two years, is recognized by the World Health Organization as an important intervention for improving child survival and promoting healthy growth and development for the rest of a child’s life.
Deworming. We provide de-worming medication to children and family members on a regular basis. In tropical and sub-tropical countries with poor sanitation and difficulty accessing clean drinking water, parasites are common. When left unaddressed, they can cause diarrheal diseases — a significant cause of malnutrition — and other complications. We prevent parasites from causing these serious problems for our patients.
Immunization. We deliver scheduled, timely vaccinations to children in the program to avoid preventable illnesses, including diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and tuberculosis. NPS vaccination rates have gone up from 49 percent of children in the program receiving all required vaccines in 2009 to over 90 percent in 2023.
Community Health Promoters. Health promoters work in their own communities as trusted advocates for health among their neighbors. We educate and enable health promoters to work as an extension of the clinical program in their own neighborhoods.
Academic Collaboration. CHOP Global Health works with the Dominican Republic’s largest pediatric hospital, Hospital Infantil Robert Reid Cabral (HIRRC) and also with Los Mina Hospital, a large maternal-child hospital, both in Santo Domingo. CHOP also coordinates multiple research projects in conjunction with other academic institutions. At Clinica de Familia a CHOP David N. Pincus Pediatric Global Health Fellow provides pediatric care and is an integral member of the clinic team.
Preferred Qualifications
1.Spanish fluency or near fluency
2.Team player
3.Self-directed learner
4.Cultural humility
Project Website
Learn more about the researcher and/or the project here. https://www.chop.edu/doctors/steenhoff-andrew and https://www.med.upenn.edu/glo…
Details:
Preferred Student Year
Second-Year, Junior, Senior, First-year
Academic Term
Summer
I prefer to have students start during the above term(s).Volunteer
Yes
Yes indicates that faculty are open to volunteers.Paid
No
Yes indicates that faculty are open to paying students they engage in their research, regardless of their work-study eligibility.Work Study
No
Yes indicates that faculty are open to hiring work-study-eligible students.