Sitting here in my office on the third floor of the Gates Building at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, looking out my window across a campus of beautifully historic brick and stone halls of an Ivy League institution, doesn’t seem like the most obvious place to be composing a blog about global health and travel. But most of my planning for our global health missions occurs in this office and the residents who are the real heros of the program (along with everyone at FAME, of course) meet with me here to plan our next adventure.

The emphasis of this blog, though, is to bring to light an amazing educational website and experience that has been developed by one of our residents, Jim Siegler. Brainwaves is a site that Jim has developed and is designed as a unique educational experience for those with an interest in neurology (BrainWaves: Continuing medical audiocation for neurologists and trainees; a podcast for neurology education).  I have not only been privileged to have worked with Jim for the past several years during his residency, but have also collaborated with him on two of his podcasts to date and one in particular dealing with our program in Tanzania. I would encourage everyone to visit this site and listen to this podcast as it is so professionally done and provides an incredibly accurate insight into what we are doing there and includes two of our resident’s perspectives.

http://brainwaves.me/the-tanzania-experience/

I think that everyone who reads my blog would be interested in hearing this podcast and, if you are so inclined to learn more about neurology, please listen to the other podcasts that are available as you will definitely enjoy them.

Meanwhile, please stay tuned as we will be heading back to FAME and Tanzania this March. Drs. Jamie Podell, Chris Perrone and Nan Lin will be joining me for the trip. I am sure we will have plenty of new experiences to share with you. On a personal note, I will be heading down to Ecuador and the Galapagos later this week for a different kind of adventure. It will be my first visit to South America and I am definitely looking forward to it. Anyone who knows me and my interest in scientific exploration can readily see the attraction to the Galapagos with its importance in the world of scientific discovery. I am hoping to share some of this with you as well. Thanks for your continued support.