Background For many medical and allied health students from African countries, the opportunity to undertake a global health elective abroad is unaffordable or inaccessible. Therefore, an imbalance has emerged where many African institutions host students from developed countries but their own students rarely go on electives in developed countries. Global Educational Exchange in the Medical and Health professions (GEMx), a service programme of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) partnered with the African Forum for Research in Health (AFREhealth) to implement a south-to-south student exchange pilot through intra-institutional partnerships. The aim was to provide affordable global-health learning opportunities to African students.

Background: Given the significant gap in International Medical Elective (IME) opportunities for African health professions students, the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates and the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (ECFMG|FAIMER) launched an African regional elective exchange program through the Global Educational Exchange in Medicine and the Health Professions (GEMx) in 2016. This paper provides an overview of the development of the GEMx program, the pillars of implementation, and lessons learned. Methods: The authors conducted a longitudinal qualitative study utilizing in-depth interviews with institutional leaders, program leaders, and faculty, participant observation through symposia, strategic planning meetings, staff meetings, and document review of the annual progress reports, strategic plans, and newsletter articles, abstracts, and concept notes. Common categories were identified and incorporated into a matrix to create themes. Data were analyzed using the manifest content approach guided by a literature review. Results: The key pillars for implementation of the GEMx Africa regional elective exchange program included: the commitment from African training institutional networks and their member institutions that enabled electives to be offered, the GEMx Charter (multilateral agreement) that enabled reciprocity and diversity of elective opportunities, GEMx web-based application system that enabled the centralization of the application process and real-time feedback on acceptance, GEMx Africa Regional Coordination Center in Kampala, Uganda that lead the development and implementation in Africa, and ECFMG mini-grants that helped defray elective costs. Conclusions: Through the development of multilateral partnerships across the continent, the GEMx regional elective exchange program contributed towards bridging a long-existing gap of inadequate opportunities for African health professions students to enhance their global exposure and strengthen their knowledge and skills. .

BackgroundGiven the significant gap in International Electives (IEs) opportunities for African health professions students, ECFMG|FAIMER through its Global Educational Exchange in Medicine and other health professions (GEMx) program launched a pilot African regional elective exchange program in 2016. During IEs, students have a choice of discipline they would like to learn, and the location, often at a host institution in a different country. This study provides an overview of health professional students’ experiences through participation in the pilot GEMx regional elective exchange program in Africa.MethodsThis was a quasi-experimental, single-group post-test-only study using the survey method. Data were collected online using a self-administered survey through SurveyMonkey. Students (N = 107) received emails with a link to the survey as they completed the electives. The survey was open for a month for each student and weekly reminders were sent.ResultsThe survey obtained a 100% response rate. All postgraduate and undergraduate students from various professional training programs (n = 107) reported gaining knowledge that was applicable back home. Over 43.4% (n = 46) reported having formed professional networks that are valuable for career progression. More than half 59.8% (n = 64) gained clinical skills and learned various procedures while 26.2% (n = 28) recognized the need for increased reliance on history taking for disease diagnosis. More than a third, 34.6% (n = 37) appreciated the different cultures and the effect of cultural beliefs on health outcomes.Discussion and conclusionsThe GEMx regional elective exchange program in Africa provided a useful platform that enabled health professional students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in their respective disciplines to gain enhanced perspectives on health issues, acquire clinical knowledge and skills applicable to their home country, strengthen personal and professional development, and develop positive attitude change in various health care delivery approaches.

Background: Given the significant gap in International Medical Elective (IME) opportunities for African health professions students, the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates and the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (ECFMG|FAIMER) launched an African regional elective exchange program through the Global Educational Exchange in Medicine and the Health Professions (GEMx) in 2016. This paper provides an overview of the development of the GEMx program, the pillars of successful implementation, and lessons learned. Methods: The authors conducted a longitudinal qualitative study utilizing in-depth interviews with institutional leaders, Program leaders, and faculty, participant observation through symposia, strategic planning meetings, staff meetings, and document review of the annual progress reports, strategic plans, and newsletter articles, abstracts and concept notes. Common categories were identified and incorporated into a matrix to create themes. Data were analyzed using the manifest content approach guided by a literature review. Results: The key pillars for the successful implementation of the GEMx Africa regional elective exchange program included: the commitment from African training institutional networks and their member institutions that enabled electives to happen, the GEMx Charter (multilateral agreement) that enabled reciprocity and diversity of elective opportunities, GEMx web-based application system that enabled the centralization of the application process and real-time feedback on acceptance, GEMx Africa Regional Coordination Center in Kampala, Uganda that lead the development and implementation in Africa, and ECFMG mini-grants that help defray the biggest part of the elective costs. Conclusions: Through the development of successful partnerships across the continent, the GEMx regional elective exchange program contributed towards bridging a long-existing gap of inadequate opportunities for African health professions students to enhance their global exposure and strengthen their knowledge and skills.

Background An international and global medical education programme can help to develop health professionals' skillsets and can be a career-defining factor during the progression from student to practising physician. Our aim is to analyse migration patterns of medical students for elective exchanges and identify intentions for continued migration. Specifically, our objectives were to determine the most popular countries and specialty types that students in the medical and health professions intend to go for elective exchanges; to assess the different factors that contribute to a student's choice to migrate for an elective; and to assess factors leading to the intent of permanent migration after completion of study at the home institution. Methods Our research deals with experiential learning in a global health setting through analysis of the trends and patterns of medical students pursuing medical electives worldwide. We used a multilingual online questionnaire, completed by students from 15 different countries across a timeframe of 1 month (April 2018). American, European, Asian, and African universities who are part of the Global Educational Exchange in the Medical and Health professions (GEMx) sent an email with the link to the questionnaire to their medical students. The questionnaire was conducted electronically and participants, who were selected via the school's respective student databases, were asked to complete the survey after their electives had been completed. Findings We analysed responses from 363 students from 15 countries (