Edward A. Gotfried, D.O., FACOS
Director, Center for Global Health

UPDATE: Global Health team in Haiti, Jan. 20-27, 2012. Check updates and photos. Or follow on Twitter @nyitmag.

Message from the Director

The discipline of "international" or "global" health has evolved over the past 150 years. We are at a point in the natural history of international medicine where trained individuals from many fields—medical, political, economic, educational, and environment—are cooperating to address challenges to world health.  The future of world health requires cooperative partnership among nations, health care professionals, medical researchers, public health specialists, corporations, and individuals. Medical schools such as NYCOM are training doctors who specialize in international health, just as business schools are training executives who specialize in international business.

We at NYIT’s Center for Global Health believe that the involvement of New York Institute of Technology and its New York College of Osteopathic Medicine—as a global institution and leader in global health, education, and knowledge—will create an opportunity for students and faculty to engage in global health practice, policy, and the development of solutions to the world’s vital problems. This program is a collaboration of NYCOM and NYIT’s School of Health Professions.

The Center for Global Health provides broader access and opportunity for medical and health professions students by expanding international programs, branch campuses, and exchanges of students and faculty. Utilizing NYIT’s digital prowess and participation in collaborative programs, the center aims to expand existing NYCOM and NYIT programs and create new ones to further medical education with particular focus on disease prevention and treatment.  NYCOM, with its emphasis on primary care medicine, is in an ideal position in health education and health promotion. Indeed, NYCOM has a “cultural treasure” to export in the form of osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) combined with the best scientific medicine.

Training foreign students in western scientific and osteopathic medicine allows for integration of different philosophies and practices of health and healing. At the same time, we can offer students at our New York campuses a progressive curriculum in global experiential medicine that will further establish NYIT and NYCOM as leaders in the global medical community. 

Edward A. Gotfried, D.O., FACOS
Director
Center for Global Health

Our Mission

The Center for Global Health, a New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) interdisciplinary center of excellence established in 2007, is a collaboration between NYIT’s New York College of Osteopathic Medicine and the School of Health Professions. The center’s mission focuses on five core goals:

1. To enhance communication across medical fields, communities, health systems, and educational institutions worldwide to develop a common language of care and caring.
2. To broaden perspectives on health care as part of our responsibility to the global community by engaging in collaborative international teaching, research, and service.
3. To stimulate and support worldwide research in the use of osteopathic medical principles and practice, and their meaningful integration within the entire medical and healing concept.
4. To develop innovative partnerships with global health and policy leaders, scholars, and practitioners with the goal of improving the health of individuals, communities, and populations worldwide.
5. To educate and inspire medical students, faculty, and health care professionals by providing exposure to and immersion in international experiences.