Feinberg Spotlight
April 2008

Sofia Taboada, MD Class of 2008

Global Partner Institutions

Pathology rotations
Fall 2007

What did you gain from your global health experience?

Personally, I think placing yourself in completely unfamiliar territory is a jolt to the senses. It allows you to appreciate what you have back home, allows you to reassess where you are in life, and pushes you to explore. I had an incredible experience in Strasbourg (France) and Berlin.

How has this experience enhanced your medical training and how will it help you in the future as a doctor?

The world is becoming a smaller place.  The phone made communication ubiquitous, but the internet made the exchange of written information (reports, images, etc.) even faster and easier.  Furthermore, in Pathology, the possiblity of teleconferencing is becoming a reality.  Therefore, making international consults even more feasible.  Medicine is an intellectually challenging and constantly changing field, which requires the ability to explore and adapt.  In order to make progress happen, we have to learn from each other.  By seeing how medicine is done somewhere else, by learning the communication skills and perspectives of other cultures, you can open the doors to the future.  We learn not only about other methods, but we also learn about ourselves and our own methods.  For example, the development of fine needle aspiration was an exchange between NYU and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.  The list of examples of American-European medical exchanges is long.  I met a lot of incredible people, which I plan to keep in contact with throughout my career.  I also learned a lot about Pathology (the basics, but also different approaches), the history of Pathology, and the future of Pathology.  My experiences were unique and invaluable.  I also think that there's no better time to go abroad than in medical school, when you're mind is still fresh and you're ready to learn something new. 

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