Tropical and Geographic Medicine Intensive Short Course

This 2024 offering has a hybrid format: on-site or virtual. Both formats come with a companion online course in the UBC learning management system, Canvas. Presentations will be recorded and made available to course participants for online viewing afterwards for a limited period.

Target Audience: Physicians, medical trainees, public health practitioners, nurses and other healthcare workers who intend to practice in the tropics, resource-limited settings or who require an update on infectious, parasitic and other major tropical diseases.

Course participants will learn:

• A clinical approach to the evaluation and management of tropical diseases;
• Practical laboratory skills, with a focus on the identification of parasites important for the diagnosis of tropical diseases;
• Public health principles and applications including outbreak management.

The course emphasizes three broad areas: (1) Clinical Tropical Medicine; (2) Parasitology; (3) Public Health. Participants will gain knowledge and skills in:

Clinical Tropical Medicine:

• Understanding the epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical presentation, and complications of major tropical diseases;
• Clinical approaches to evaluating patients presenting with diseases acquired in the tropics;
• Diagnosing and treating important tropical diseases.

Parasitology:

• Understanding of the lifecycles of clinically important parasites with respect to transmission and control;
• Understanding of the development of parasites within the human body and the corresponding clinical symptoms and pathophysiology;
• Laboratory diagnosis of various blood and gastrointestinal parasites.

Public Health:

• Understanding the approach to outbreak investigation through an interactive case-based session;
• Preventing and controlling infections within a community using modalities such as immunization and environmental health intervention.

Accreditation/certification:
 
The Division of Continuing Professional Development, University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine (UBC CPD) is fully accredited by the Continuing Medical Education Accreditation Committee (CACME) to provide CPD credits for physicians. This activity is an Accredited Group Learning Activity (Section 1) as defined by the Maintenance of Certification Program of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and approved by UBC CPD. You may claim a maximum of 33.75 hours (credits are automatically calculated). This one-credit-per-hour Group Learning program meets the certification criteria of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and has been certified by UBC CPD for up to 33.75 Mainpro+® credits. Each physician should claim only those credits accrued through participation in the activity.
CFPC Session ID: 202133-001
 
This program was co-developed between the UBC Faculty of Medicine, School of Population and Public Health and UBC Division of Infectious Diseases and was planned to achieve scientific integrity, objectivity and balance.
 
Medical residents may begin participating in the MOC and Mainpro+ credit programs during residency.
 
Specialist residents may transfer up to 75 credits reported during residency into their first 5-year MOC cycle.
Family physician residents may transfer up to 40 Certified Mainpro+ credits reported during residency into their first active Mainpro+ cycle.