Whitley Aamodt is a member of the Penn Neurology class of 2019. She is also a member of the Resident & Fellow Editorial Team for the journal Neurology and as part of that role she is developing a Global and Community Health section.
I asked Whitley to describe her background in global health and her plans for the Resident & Fellow (R&F) section:
When I joined the R&F, I was asked how we could improve the section or an existing subsection. I was most interested in the International Issues subsection, and I thought it would be a great idea to broaden the scope. Rather than solely focus on international topics, I thought it would be interesting to discuss aspects of neurological care in underserved regions of the United States. While not every neurology trainee has worked abroad, most neurology residents routinely care for patients who lack access to medical resources. In addition, many neurology residents participate in local community service activities (such as the Puentes de Salud program here in Philadelphia). Other trainees are involved in creating larger public health initiatives on both a state and national scale. I thought it was really important to capture these experiences and discuss their importance in neurology training. So, I proposed expanding and renaming the subsection and rewrote the description. It was approved in January and we're currently focused on soliciting manuscripts. We have issued a call for authors on the following topics:
1. International rotations in low or middle income countries
2. Local volunteer experiences in underserved communities
3. Teaching experiences with patients and providers
4. Community health projects or initiatives
5. Health disparities
Whitley brings considerable experience to this role. She has traveled on medical trips to five countries (Romania, Peru, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Tanzania) and she completed an MD/MPH in medical school. And now, during residency, she is pursuing a Capstone project that examines the prevalence of neurologic disease in Tanzanian tribal populations.
