Global Child Health

By Mayo Clinic Staff

Mayo Clinic Children's Center improves the health of the world's children through clinical, educational, training and research activities. We host visiting clinicians from other countries. We use simulation training to prepare people to care for children around the world. And, we go where we're needed!

Where we're active

Physicians, medical students, nurses and other health professionals from Mayo Clinic Children's Center contribute their expert skills to areas of the world that have limited health care. We also engage in educational conferences in underdeveloped and developed countries, collaborating on vital clinical approaches and studies. Examples of our global child health efforts and achievements include:

  • Cambodia — studies on risk factors and clinical presentations of beri beri (a wasting type disease) and on deficiency of thiamine (a B vitamin)
  • Democratic Republic of Congo — teaching staff at Panzi Hospital who treat adolescents with traumatic or obstetric fistulas
  • Ecuador — physicians and volunteers working together through the nonprofit organization Hands For Humanity, providing surgery for children in Portoviejo, Ecuador
  • Ethiopia — neurology and other specialties
  • Georgia — newborn, emergent, critical care and trauma resuscitation
  • Ghana — annual general medical conference
  • Haiti — pediatric education
  • Honduras — education on obstetrics and newborn care, plus surgical care and education
  • Italy — educational exchange every 18 months with Bambino Gesu Children's Hospital in Rome
  • Kenya — repeated trips by procedural specialists
  • Nepal — cardiac care
  • New Zealand — speakers for the Paediatric Society of New Zealand's annual meeting
  • Russia — regular cardiac trips
  • Vietnam — annual pediatric conference