International Emergency Medicine

Programs - International Medicine - Overview

One of the thrilling aspects of living in Los Angeles is enjoying the diverse cultural atmosphere evident throughout the city. With its close proximity to the Mexican border, in addition to its pivotal role as a central hub for entry into the United States, many of our emergency department patients at LAC+USC are recent immigrants or international travelers. To improve our diagnostic abilities, tropical infectious diseases have become an important part of our emergency medicine training, a basic knowledge of which is fundamental for any physician working with these populations of patients. Past lectures have emphasized the diagnostic approach to fever in the returned traveler, tropical causes of space occupying lesions of the hepatobiliary tree diagnosed by bedside ultrasound, leprosy, malaria, and tropical skin ulcers.