I believe that every resident education program should include an opportunity (not a requirement) to teach and study in an alternative-model health care setting. If this became a standard offering in residency programs (even globally), our residents would gain a better understanding of how otolaryngology is practiced in other parts of the world, and they would see firsthand that it is often very different from what they know.
I would like to share the experience of our Resident Educational Exchange Program that connects residents from the University of Minnesota with residents from Addis Ababa University (AAU). Sharing this experience helps to make my point. I participate in a teaching mission twice a year. We work for the most part in 2 hospitals while in Addis Ababa, both of which are affiliated with AAU. For each trip, I sponsor a chief resident from the University of Minnesota to come to Addis Ababa for 1 week. We have had occasional support from the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery through Humanitarian Efforts Committee travel grants. We have been doing these trips for over 5 years.