Arielle Wenokur, a medical student at Wayne State University, won top honors for her presentation at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health’s annual meeting. She is pursuing her medical degree with a scholarly concentration in global health and won the Lancet Global Health Best Student Poster Competition within the Global Health Education category for her poster, “Assessing Knowledge of Global Healthcare Systems in Medical Education.”
The project analyzed medical student knowledge of global health care systems after students either attended a lecture series on the topic organized by the global health concentration class, had previous global health education or experience, or none of the above. The analysis identified that those who attended the lecture series had greater knowledge, but those with previous education or experience had greater confidence in their knowledge, even though their results were comparable to the control.
Based on this information, Arielle concluded that global health care system education should be incorporated into the medical student curriculum. She explained that literature shows that global health education produces more competent physicians in terms of clinical diagnostic skills, physical exam skills and cultural competency.
Arielle’s project was built on the Global and Urban Health Equity certificate program at Wayne State University’s School of Medicine. This two-year comprehensive curriculum is based on interprofessional competencies developed by the Consortium of Universities for Global Health and fostered through collaborations with various healthcare institutions. The Office of Medical Student Research Programs at Wayne State University is dedicated to providing and guiding students through scholarly projects and research opportunities like Arielle’s.
To learn more about scholarly concentration opportunities at Wayne State University’s School of Medicine, visit
