School of Medicine

Increasing Diversity Beyond our Borders

In 2006, the School of Medicine committed itself to developing programs to increase the number of minority students who matriculate from the school. Through the Johns Hopkins Medicine Scholars program, the school is producing diverse, talented leaders in medicine – some of whom have graduated and are practicing physicians at leading institutions across the country. See our Alumni Update below to learn more about one of these scholars.*

This commitment has also resulted in a broader effort to recruit student leaders who bring a different view to health care challenges, like addressing health disparities or caring for underserved populations. In April, the School of Medicine announced an exciting new step in its journey to nurture the next generation of health care innovators – an international scholarship program.

The program, sponsored by Johns Hopkins Medicine International, provides financial assistance to aspiring international medical students who are accepted at the school but are unable to obtain the financial resources needed for their studies. Most non-citizens are ineligible to receive financial aid from the U.S. government, making cost a barrier for many international students who apply to U.S. medical schools.

These scholarships continue to build on a foundation of inclusion that originated with founding Hopkins leaders like William H. Welch, Alfred Blalock, Med '22, Samuel P. Asper, Med '40, and continues with individuals like Mike Weisfeldt, Med '65, and Charles Wiener. Their vision of multiculturalism and diversity has helped guide the School of Medicine to where it is today.

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Alumni Update

Passionate About Improving Health Care Access

Maria Esteli Garcia, Med ’11, was a Johns Hopkins Medicine Scholar and is currently a first-year internal medicine resident at the University of California at San Francisco.

Garcia, who relocated to the U.S. from Mexico as a child, is committed to improving health care access of the underserved, particularly Latino immigrants. During medical school, she a spent a year researching quality improvement in HIV clinics in Tanzania as part of program sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. She also cofounded Programa Salud (now called Bienestar), a coalition of Hopkins medical, public health and nursing students who encourage Latino students to enroll in health care tracks in college and earlier.

While her career goals are still taking shape, Garcia says she plans to continue her focus on international medicine and is interested in working with individuals living with HIV and AIDS. Garcia, who is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, says she’s struck by how grateful patients are to communicate in their native language. “It’s really important that our workforce be more representative of the populations we serve,” said Garcia.

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Student News

Biomedical Engineering: Improving Global Health Care

More than 300 attendees gathered in the Armstrong Medical Education Building on May 7 for the 2012 Johns Hopkins Biomedical Engineering Design Day, an annual event showcasing the talent of biomedical engineering students.

During this year’s design day, a team of graduate students unveiled FeverPoint, a device they hope will lower the number of still births and deaths from fever-related illnesses in developing countries. FeverPoint is a simple self-test using a cotton thread and a drop of blood to check for causes of fevers. The device does not require water or electricity. The FeverPoint team included five graduate students from the Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design and two students from the School of Medicine.

BabyBeats, another device that was unveiled, is a fetal heart rate monitor powered by a rechargeable cell phone battery and costs just $10.

Other global health projects included a machine to stop postpartum hemorrhage and a new tool for treating cervical cancer.

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Other

Save the Date: Reunion Weekend & Biennial Meeting

Reunion is the perfect time to renew friendships and return to the campus that served as home for four or more years of your life. Medical school class graduation years ending in 2, 3, 7 and 8 will celebrate milestone reunions. If you graduated in 1962 or 1963, you will have arrived at your 50th reunion celebration, the biggest milestone of them all! So, please mark your calendars to return to Baltimore June 6-9, 2013. Visit us online for more details.