OVERVIEW

Tropical Medicine is organized by Remote Care Education.

Learn how to provide care in the tropics
Most temperate doctors' experience with tropical conditions is only in returning travelers, and this is not the same as these conditions presented on their home turf in underserved tropical landscapes far from your normal practice experience. This course bundle includes Cultural Competency, Fever, Diarrheal Disease, Infectious Disease, Envenomation, and Parasites and provides a solid grounding in concepts of tropical medicine using specific tropical conditions and practice considerations for context.

Lesson Plan:

Cultural Competence | 63 minutes
Review common but often unexpected cultural issues that arise during consults across wide religious, ethnic, geographic, language, and socio-economic gulfs. Learn skills to communicate more effectively with patients, utilize translators, and reduce medical errors related to miscommunication. Participants should gain confidence when approaching consults in unfamiliar cultural settings and using cultural competency skills to improve clinical outcomes.
Fever in Tropical Settings | 43 minutes
A summary of strategies for treating fevers in mission deployments utilizing clinical signs (such as skin signs), fever pattern recognition, and a systemic approach to differentiate fevers in resource-limited settings, with an emphasis on tropical presentations. Includes a review of common acute and chronic, as well as infectious and non-infectious causes of fever. Algorithms for general and empiric treatment of fevers are included. Participants should gain confidence and competence in recognizing and managing febrile presentations in remote or resource-limited settings, as well as in their home country in returning travelers.
Parasites | 75 minutes
A comprehensive review of parasitic organisms that prey on vulnerable populations, including protozoa, blood parasites, worms, arthropods, and mammals. A special emphasis is placed on malaria, and regional knowledge of parasite burdens to improve clinical diagnoses. Management of parasites in resource-limited settings especially without access to laboratory diagnosis—are emphasized, as well as primary prevention. Participants should gain confidence and competence in recognizing and managing parasite presentations in remote or resource-limited settings, as well as in their home country in returning travelers.
Envenomations | 81 minutes
A review of different types of venom, modes of envenomation, and snake, arthropod, and marine vectors. Management of acute envenomation and primary prevention are emphasized, as well as the regionality of venomous organisms and diagnoses by clinical signs. Participants should gain greater diagnostic and management skills to be able to provide better care more rapidly in venomous encounters, and experience reduced exposure risk while traveling in endemic regions.
Diarrheal Disease Fundamentals for Resource-Limited Settings | 52 minutes
This ubiquitous medical mission issue receives special attention. Common causes are reviewed, with an emphasis on pattern recognition and clinical diagnosis, common causes, dehydration, public health, and primary prevention. Management strategies in remote settings are included, as well as regional barriers and strategies for larger-scale interventions. Participants should gain confidence and competence in recognizing and managing diarrheal presentations in remote or resource-limited settings.
Infectious Disease in Underserved Regions | 26 minutes
An overview of common infectious disease fundamentals in resource-limited settings and a review of conditions that may be rare in developed nations but commonly encountered in medical aid settings, with an emphasis on clinical diagnoses. Participants should gain confidence in approaching the diagnosis and treatment of a variety of specific infectious disease issues.