Our curriculum is focused in providing the broadest clinical exposure to our participants, through intensive clinical interaction during clinical rounds. Although it is mainly focused in clinical experience, lectures on selected topics in tropical medicine are included daily. In addition, case discussion sessions are programmed to share diverse expertise on clinical problems brought by the participants. The course’s curriculum activities include:

Clinical Rounds

Clinical rounds are done on a rotating basis in groups of 5 participants with one senior sub-specialty certified faculty. These are held daily at the Cayetano Heredia Hospital wards and outpatient clinic, Arzobispo Loayza hospital and Children’s Hospital in Lima for a total of 50 hours. At every single round, highly illustrative patients with tropical diseases are seen and discussed by the participants.

Clinical exposure is not merely observational. Intensive interactive clinical teaching by the faculty is done in every group, often including visits to the microbiology or pathology lab for final confirmation of diagnoses. Unlike in many other on-site tropical training settings, the patients seen by Gorgas participants have access to extensive microbiological, immunological, pathological and radiological (CT Scan, MRI) testing so that diagnoses are in most cases confirmed and not merely presumptive.

Didactic Lectures

Traditional lecture format given in 1-hour blocks.

Case discussions

Every participant is asked to present 2 or 3 challenging cases in a rotating basis and lead the discussion. A faculty member will contribute at the end of each session.

Case conferences

A written case protocol is presented by a faculty member who then leads an interactive discussion of differential diagnosis and diagnostic workup. Other case conferences will involve teaching cases in a specific subject area collected over time by a faculty member.

Field teaching trips

We also program a Saturday excursion to Ticlio, a mountain pass of the Andes located 15 800 feet above sea level and 750 miles away from Lima. During the ascent, students will familiarize with the inter-Andean valley's geography endemic for diseases like leishmaniasis and bartonellosis.

Typical Daily Schedule

Other resources

- Access to WIFI connection in the classroom.
- Access to an electronic library in tropical medicine.
- Access to hard copies of most important tropical medicine textbooks at the Tropical Medicine Institute Alexander von Humboldt.