BAGHDAD, IRAQ – After years of intense negotiations, the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have reached a landmark agreement on a new global health initiative. The purpose of the initiative is to provide keen American medical students interested in global health with exciting learning opportunities in oppressed, war-torn countries.
“We have many unique learning opportunities for medical students,” said ISIS spokesman Abu-Ali Khalid Mohamed. “For example, we have a cutting-edge head and neck dissection program with a spectacular collection of prosections. It is great for those wanting to learn anatomy, as well as for budding surgeons.”
Currently, the program is a unilateral agreement to send American medical students to ISIS-controlled countries, but the long-term goal is to establish a bilateral exchange.
“The AMSA-ISIS global health initiative will be great for American medical students,” said Joey Winkelmann, a fourth year medical student. “I’m particularly interested in psychiatry and I’ve heard that suicide is a big problem over there. I hope to help out as much as I can.”
Other learning opportunities advertised by ISIS include emergency medicine, nuclear medicine, palliative care, and physical medicine and rehabilitation.
“We face many difficult challenges with our patient population. I often think about how difficult it can be to console our palliative patients. It is very difficult to break bad news,” said Mohamed. “The skills we will teach the students will be invaluable, especially when they go back to America.”
The first batch of medical students is scheduled to depart this summer.
