Introductory Course

Formerly Introductory Fellowship

Explore the world’s most pressing problems and how medical doctors can contribute toward solving them.

About

The Hi-Med Intro Course is an 8-week reading group curated by experts in the field, that explores the world's most pressing problems and how medical professionals can help solve them.

The material combines readings from academic journals, articles and podcasts with group discussions and one-to-one mentoring, focusing on topics such as global health, public policy, biosecurity, mental health and medical technology.

Over 100 medical students and doctors from around the world have already completed the Fellowship, and they’ve given it a 90% recommendation rate! We run groups that meet both in person and virtually - register your interest for the next cohort below.

What’s involved?

Each week contains approximately 3 hours of pre-reading, followed by 1.5 hours of discussion with a facilitator. There are also opportunities to engage in further mentoring and research opportunities during and after the fellowship.

Who’s it for?

The Course is open to anyone with a medical background who is interested in exploring how they can maximise the positive impact of their career. We welcome participants from all over the world and at all levels of training, from first-year medical students to professors.

  • Without wishing to sound hyperbolic, participating in the Hi-Med Fellowship was a transformative experience for me. It provided the space, resources and community to shape my aspirational, abstract interest in maximising my impact on people’s lives, allowing myself to practically consider how to make that a reality. It has helped me think more critically and intentionally about the things I do to build up my career. Finding a community of like-minded (and frankly, pretty wonderful) people has been a great bonus too. I’d highly, highly recommend anyone to take part – there’s nothing to lose and so much to gain!

    Kabir Khanna, medical student, London, UK

  • “Hi-Med has had a huge impact on my career. Since taking part in year 2, I have had a clearer understanding of what I want my career to look like and what I can do to work towards that. I will be starting an intercalated Masters next September, which will help me towards my goal of getting involved in UK health policy, something that I do not believe I would have done if I had not been a part of Hi-Med.”

    Grace Foy, medical student, UK

  • Even though I’d spent quite a bit of time involved in Effective Altruism prior to the fellowship, the reading allowed me to much deeper into areas I was familiar with and wider into areas that I’d never considered before. I found the pre-reading each week to be interesting, valuable, and a lot of fun- expertly curated and fun to discuss with like-minded people.

    Joseph Pusey, Royal Bolton Hospital, Foundation Doctor, United Kingdom

Paper published

We are proud to announce that our research paper on our inaugural cohort of the Introductory Course has been published in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE! A big shout out to its authors Akhil Bansal, Joseph Pusey, Rahul Shah, and Abe Tolley!

Actionable steps

In this document, we’ve collated a number of resources and opportunities that we think might be helpful to deepen your knowledge and build useful skills and experience in your cause areas of interest.