#DWIHzeitgeist - Building Bridges via Internationalization of Medical Education

Anette Wu (Fortgang) is an associate professor in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S), Columbia University, New York, NY. Dr. Wu is the founder and director of the “International Collaboration and Exchange program – Preparing Global Leaders for Healthcare” at VP&S - a unique interdisciplinary, international student networking and exchange program that is based in the anatomy course (globally), with content that incorporates global health, public health, health equity, multiculturalism, diversity, and health law and ethics. The program partners 25 medical and health sciences schools on 4 continents, in order to impart leadership skills, convey international and interdisciplinary teamwork and collaboration skills, transmit cultural competency skills, and provide a professional network for future global leaders in healthcare. Her educational research focuses on the internationalization of medical education in order to promote the improvement of global health and the reduction of healthcare nationalism and inequity. She has authored multiple articles on this topic, including internationalization of medical education “at home” approaches. Dr. Wu is currently a guest editor at Frontiers in Education regarding the issue of “Teaching and Learning in a Global Context” and an upcoming guest editor for BMC Medical Education in reference to “Internationalization of Medical Education”. Dr. Wu was elected to the Virginia Apgar Academy of Medical Educators, an honorary society of the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, in recognition for her excellence in education. She received her MD and PhD degrees from Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany. For her PhD she completed a research scholarship at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. Dr. Wu trained in General and Transplantation Surgery at Hannover Medical School, and the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. She completed a fellowship in Transplantation Immunology at Harvard Medical School. Subsequently, Dr. Wu received a Master’s Degree in Health Policy and Management from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

After studying medicine in Hannover (Germany) and Rennes (France), Heike Kielstein received her doctorate (MD) in 1998 on a topic related to visceral surgery. She habilitated in 2005 and 2 years later she was appointed junior professor for Endocrine-Immunology at the Hannover Medical School. Since 2015 Kielstein has been working as a full professor and the head of the Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology, the Center for Advanced Training in Clinical Anatomy and the Meckel Collections at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. In September 2022, she was elected dean of the Medical Faculty. Her work in university medicine enables her to work in various highly exciting areas (research, teaching, academic self-administration). It is important for Kielstein that both pillars of academic medicine, research and teaching, are given equal weight. For her scientific work on the impairment of the functionality of immune cells by obesity, Kielstein received the Ernst Eickhoff Prize for Endocrinology, and I was awarded "Professor of the Year 2017" in the category Medicine/Natural Sciences by the Federal Ministry of Education and Sciences for her commitment to teaching. Since 2016 she has been a member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities. In an interdisciplinary team, she carries out exciting cellular and molecular studies to investigate the influence of a changed metabolic situation in the context of obesity on the growth of tumor cells and metastasis. Kielstein hopes to continuously develop anatomical teaching and to implement innovative teaching approaches. She received teaching awards from the Medical Faculties in Hannover and Halle in 2001, 2009, 2012 and 2015. Since 2022 Kielstein serves as president of the association ‘Assistance for Foreign Students’ of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.

Shaheen Malick, MD is a resident physician in the department of Pathology and Cell Biology at Columbia University. He completed medical school at Columbia University, during which he participated in the ICEP international exchange. He spent a summer in Halle, Germany at the Martin Luther Universität. During his free time, Shaheen is a cellist.

Alexandra Matschiner is a 6th year medical student from Halle, Germany and the first ICEP national student leader of Germany. She travelled to New York with the ICE Program in 2017 for a 4-week Anatomy Exchange. Two years later she started working on her MD-Thesis at Columbia University Center for Translational Immunology.

Zhenrui Liao is an MD/PhD candidate at Columbia University. He received his PhD in Neuroscience in December 2022 supervised by Professor Attila Losonczy and will finish medical school in May 2024, with a plan to pursue training in Neurology after graduating and combine research and clinical practice. In summer 2019, Zhenrui did research in the laboratory of Professor Andreas Herz at the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität in Munich prior to starting his PhD.

Carlos Galvez grew up in La Habana, Cuba where he studied Computer Science. After relocating to Miami, he obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Health Services Administration with a minor in Biology from Florida International University where he received Magna Cum Laude Honors. He then attended Columbia University College of Dental Medicine and obtained his Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) degree. During his first summer in dental school, he participated in the International Collaboration Exchange Program when he traveled to Halle, Germany to work with Dr. Heike Kielstein on a case report project later published in the Journal of Cardiac Surgery. Upon graduation from dental school, Dr. Galvez was recognized by Columbia University and the International College of Dentists with a Humanitarian Award for his contribution and service to marginalized communities. Dr. Galvez is a member of the Hispanic Dental Association where he holds multiple leadership roles in different committees. He is passionate about orthodontics and is currently a PG1- Orthodontics resident at MedStar Washington Hospital Center.

Michael Goeckeritz is a third-year medical student at Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. From 2020 until 2021 he participated in the International Collaboration and Exchange Program (ICEP) which widened his view for international cooperation in the medical field and was a great opportunity for him to get to know medical students from different countries. In 2021 he passed the first medical state examination. To do his thesis research, he joined Prof. Adam Mor’s lab at Columbia University New York in May 2022. His research focuses on Tumor Immunology, especially Checkpoint Signaling in T cells gained my interest. He will return to Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in April 2023 to resume Medical School.

After finishing high school in 2019, Luca Schahadat did a voluntary year at the ICU at BG Clinic, Tübingen. In 2020 she started a B.Sc. program Molecular Biology at Heidelberg University; however, in 2021, she transferred to the Faculty of Medicine at LMU Munich where she also started participating in the International Collaboration and Exchange Program. Since October 2022 she has been working as a student researcher at Prof. Emanuel Zorn’s lab at Columbia University on Lupus and Parkinson's disease. She will return to Munich in fall 2023 to complete her studies.