Essential CV Building Tips for DO Graduates Pursuing Global Health Residency

Understanding the Global Health Residency Landscape as a DO Graduate

Building a strong residency CV as a DO graduate interested in global health requires balancing three narratives:

1. You are a well-trained osteopathic physician (solid clinical and OMM foundation).
2. You are genuinely committed to global health and international medicine (beyond “medical tourism”).
3. You are realistic and prepared for the systems you’ll enter (U.S.-based training plus meaningful work abroad or with underserved populations).

Residency programs with a global health residency track or established international medicine opportunities want candidates who bring:

• Strong clinical skills and professionalism
• Cultural humility and adaptability
• Evidence of sustained interest in underserved care
• Capacity to work in teams, often in low-resource settings
• Ethical awareness (avoiding short-term, self-focused trips)

As a DO graduate, you also need to show that your osteopathic training is an asset: whole-person care, focus on function, and often more primary-care oriented experience.

Your CV is not just a list of activities. It’s a strategic document that helps program directors quickly see:
“Can this DO graduate succeed in our program and contribute to our global health mission?”

The rest of this guide will walk you through how to build a CV for residency, specifically optimized for a DO graduate residency applicant targeting global health.

---

Core Structure of a Strong Global Health–Focused Residency CV

Before you refine content, start with a clean, standard structure. Most program directors and coordinators want a familiar format they can scan in 30–60 seconds.

A recommended order for a medical student CV / DO graduate residency CV:

1. Contact Information
2. Education
3. Professional Exams & Licensure (COMLEX/USMLE)
4. Clinical Experience (Clerkships, Sub-I’s, Away Rotations)
5. Global Health & International Medicine Experience
6. Research & Scholarly Activity
7. Leadership & Service
8. Teaching & Mentoring
9. Honors & Awards
10. Professional Memberships
11. Skills (Languages, Procedures, Technical)
12. Interests (Selective, relevant, concise)

1. Contact Information

Keep it simple and professional:

• Full name (include “DO”)
• Phone number
• Professional email (e.g., firstname.lastname@domain.com)
• Current mailing address (optional but common)
• LinkedIn (only if it’s complete and polished)

Avoid including a photo or personal demographics on the CV (ERAS manages that; outside ERAS, check norms of the specific institution or country).

2. Education

List in reverse chronological order:

• DO degree: institution, city/state, graduation month/year
• Undergraduate: degree, major, institution, graduation year, academic honors

Include your global health–related coursework or certificates under education if they are substantial and structured (e.g., “Global Health Certificate, XYZ University – 12-credit graduate-level program”).

Example entry:

Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO)
Kansas City University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Kansas City, MO
Expected Graduation: May 2026
Global Health Track Participant (4-year longitudinal curriculum)

3. Exams & Licensure

Programs want to know your exam status clearly. For DOs:

• COMLEX Level 1, 2-CE, 2-PE (if applicable)
• USMLE Step 1, 2 CK (if taken)
• Any state limited licenses (rare at application stage)

Use a clear, consistent format:

COMLEX-USA Level 1 – Passed, June 2024
COMLEX-USA Level 2-CE – Pending, scheduled October 2025

If scores are strong and you are applying outside ERAS (e.g., global fellowships, NGOs), you may choose to list them; otherwise, “Passed” may be sufficient depending on program and instructions.

---

Highlighting Global Health and International Medicine Experience

For a global health residency track, this is your unique selling point. Many applicants say they’re “interested in global health”—far fewer can show sustained, ethical, structured involvement. Your goal: place this experience high on the CV and make it easy to understand.

Where to Place Global Health Experience

You have two good options:

1. Dedicated Section:
   “Global Health & International Medicine Experience” immediately after Clinical Experience.

2. Integrated Approach:
   Integrate global health under each relevant heading (e.g., research, electives) but still call it out explicitly in descriptions.

For most DO graduates with a clear focus, a dedicated section is helpful.

What Counts as Global Health Experience?

Include:

• International clinical electives or sub-internships
• Longitudinal work with refugees, migrants, tribal nations, or other underserved/under-resourced communities in the U.S.
• Work with NGOs or public health agencies (local or abroad)
• Research in global/international medicine, health equity, epidemiology, or implementation science
• Formal global health training programs, workshops, or certificate courses

Focus on activities that are:

• Structured and supervised
• At least several days to weeks in duration or longitudinal over months
• Directly related to health, systems, or determinants of health

How to Describe Global Health Experience

Use action-oriented bullet points that emphasize responsibilities, systems understanding, cultural humility, and outcomes rather than “I traveled and saw interesting things.”

Example entry:

Global Health Clinical Elective – Internal Medicine
Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre, Moshi, Tanzania
July–August 2024

• Participated in ward rounds in a 500-bed regional referral hospital under supervision of local attendings
• Managed patients with malaria, TB, HIV, rheumatic heart disease, and advanced noncommunicable diseases with limited diagnostic resources
• Collaborated with local clinical officers and nurses to adapt evidence-based guidelines to resource-constrained settings
• Conducted brief teaching sessions for local students on physical diagnosis using osteopathic principles

Another example (U.S.-based but globally relevant):

Refugee Health Clinic Volunteer
Community Care Health Center, Detroit, MI
2023–Present

• Conduct weekly triage and patient navigation for Arabic- and Swahili-speaking refugee populations under faculty supervision
• Coordinate with medical interpreters to facilitate informed consent and patient education
• Contributed to development of a culturally tailored hypertension education handout used in the clinic

These descriptions show role clarity, supervised clinical work, system-level understanding, and cultural engagement—key for global health residency programs.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

Program directors are wary of:

• Short “medical mission trips” framed as major expertise
• Unsupervised procedures or scope-of-practice overreach
• Vague descriptions like “helped many poor patients abroad”

Be honest and concrete. A 7-day trip can be listed, but don’t oversell it. For example:

Short-Term Observership – Primary Care in Rural Guatemala

• Shadowed local physicians in primary care clinics; observed management of chronic diseases in resource-limited settings
• Assisted with health education activities; no independent clinical decision-making

This shows integrity and professionalism, which matter as much as experience length.

---

Tailoring a DO Graduate Residency CV to Global Health Programs

As a DO graduate, you bring unique strengths that align well with international and underserved care: holistic thinking, physical diagnosis skills, often more exposure to primary care, and OMM. Your task is to make that alignment explicit.

Emphasize Osteopathic Training as a Global Health Asset

In multiple sections—clinical experience, skills, even interests—you can connect osteopathic principles to global health:

• Whole-person care: “Addressed social determinants of health (housing, food security, occupation) during primary care visits.”
• Hands-on diagnosis: “Performed thorough physical exams relying on clinical findings when imaging or labs were limited or delayed.”
• OMM: “Provided OMT for musculoskeletal pain, optimizing function where imaging or procedures were not readily available.”

Example entry blending osteopathy and global health:

OMM Elective – Chronic Pain Management in Underserved Populations
County Safety-Net Clinic, Phoenix, AZ

• Applied OMT techniques for low back and neck pain in patients with limited access to imaging or physical therapy
• Collaborated with social work and behavioral health teams to address psychosocial contributors to pain
• Documented outcomes using patient-reported pain scales and functional status

This kind of entry bridges DO identity and global health–aligned practice.

Clinical Experience: Make Relevance Clear

Under core clinical rotations and sub-internships, highlight:

• Work in safety-net hospitals or FQHCs
• Exposure to high immigrant or refugee populations
• Management of diseases prevalent in international settings (TB, HIV, malaria if applicable, advanced NCDs, obstetric complications)

Instead of generic bullets like “performed histories and physicals,” tailor for global health:

• Performed comprehensive histories and physicals for uninsured and underinsured patients with complex social challenges
• Coordinated care with social services, public health clinics, and community organizations
• Participated in multidisciplinary case conferences focusing on social determinants of health

Research and Scholarly Work in Global Health

For the osteopathic residency match with a global emphasis, research is helpful but not mandatory. If you have it, frame it clearly as global, international, or health equity–related.

Examples:

Research Assistant – Tuberculosis Screening in Migrant Farmworkers

• Conducted chart reviews and data abstraction for a retrospective study on latent TB infection screening
• Co-authored an abstract presented at [Conference Name] focusing on barriers to preventive care in mobile populations

Quality Improvement Project – Vaccination Rates in Refugee Children

• Designed and implemented a QI intervention to increase completion of catch-up immunization schedules
• Achieved a 20% increase in series completion over 6 months; results submitted as a poster

These show that you can think critically about health systems and inequities—core to global health.

---

Practical Residency CV Tips for DO Graduates Targeting Global Health

This section focuses on specific residency CV tips and examples of how to build a CV for residency that stands out in the global health space.

1. Be Intentional with Section Order

For a DO graduate residency application in global health, consider:

• Education
• Exams
• Clinical Experience
• Global Health & International Medicine (prominently)
• Research & Scholarship
• Leadership & Service
• Teaching
• Awards
• Skills
• Interests

This prioritizes the content global health programs care most about.

2. Quantify When Possible

Residency directors appreciate scope and scale:

• “Volunteered regularly” → “Volunteered 4–6 hours/week for 18 months at a student-run free clinic serving primarily uninsured Latinx patients.”
• “Worked with refugees” → “Participated in 10+ multidisciplinary case conferences addressing housing, employment, and chronic disease management in newly arrived refugee families.”

Numbers make contributions concrete.

3. Highlight Longitudinal Commitment

Global health is skeptical of “one-and-done” experiences. Use the CV to show sustained engagement:

• Multi-year involvement in the same clinic or organization
• Leadership roles that grew over time
• Continuity projects (e.g., QI, curriculum development)

Example:

Global Health Interest Group – Vice President, then President
2022–2025

• Organized monthly seminars on international medicine and health equity topics, averaging 40 attendees
• Developed a predeparture orientation curriculum adopted by the Office of Global Health for all students going abroad

This portrays growth, initiative, and follow-through.

4. Integrate Leadership and Advocacy

Global health residency tracks want future leaders. Under Leadership & Service, list roles that show:

• Organizing capacity
• Ability to work across disciplines
• Advocacy for vulnerable populations

Example:

Student Representative – Institutional Global Health Committee

• Contributed to review of ethical guidelines for student participation in international electives
• Helped develop a standardized reflection tool for students returning from global health rotations

5. Languages and Cross-Cultural Skills

In the Skills section, carefully list:

• Languages (with self-rated proficiency: native, fluent, advanced, intermediate, basic)
• Cross-cultural communication skills (but only if substantiated by experience elsewhere in the CV)

Example:

Languages:

• Spanish – Advanced (conducts basic clinical interviews and patient education with interpreter backup)
• French – Intermediate (conversational)

Avoid overstating—programs may test this in interviews.

6. Tailoring for Different Program Types

Not every program has a named global health residency track, but many emphasize:

• Underserved care
• Health equity
• International partnerships
• Urban or rural vulnerable communities

For each program type:

• Global Health Track Programs: Put global and international medicine experiences as high as possible; align your activities with their stated mission (e.g., maternal health, HIV, migration health).
• Community/Underserved Programs: Emphasize U.S.-based underserved work, free clinics, public health projects, advocacy.
• Academic IM/FM/Peds with International Rotations: Highlight both your academic productivity (research, QI) and your global health engagement.

This is less about rewriting the whole CV and more about small adjustments in emphasis, wording, and section ordering.

7. Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Overcrowded CV: More is not always better. Remove activities that are brief, irrelevant, or redundant.
• Vague global health statements: Be specific about setting, role, and duration.
• Unrealistic claims of impact: Avoid language like “transformed the health system”; focus on your piece of the work.
• Typos and inconsistent formatting: These suggest lack of attention to detail—unacceptable in clinical training.

Have at least one mentor in global health and one residency advisor review your CV.

---

Step-by-Step: How to Build a CV for Residency as a DO Focused on Global Health

Here is a practical process you can follow during pre-clinical years, clinical years, and the application cycle.

Step 1: Clarify Your Global Health Narrative

Before writing the CV, reflect on:

• Why global health?
• Who are the populations you care about?
• What kinds of systems or settings fit you (rural, urban, refugee, maternal, infectious disease, NCDs, etc.)?
• How does being a DO shape your approach?

Your medical student CV should support a coherent story, not a random list of unrelated activities.

Step 2: Inventory Your Experiences

Make a master list (not formatted) of:

• All clinical rotations and elective experiences
• Any global or international medicine exposure
• Volunteer and service positions
• Leadership roles
• Research, QI, and presentations
• Teaching or peer mentoring
• Languages, certifications, technical skills

Then, identify:

• Which clearly support your global health narrative
• Which show clinical strength and professionalism
• Which are less central and might be shortened or omitted

Step 3: Draft the CV with Standard Structure

Follow the standard sections, but place global health prominently. Use consistent formatting:

• Same font style and size throughout
• Clear headings and subheadings
• Bullet points starting with strong action verbs
• Dates aligned on one side (right or left)

Step 4: Strengthen Descriptions Using Global Health Lens

For each activity, ask:

• Does this show attention to social determinants of health?
• Does it reflect cross-cultural or low-resource skills?
• Does it illustrate leadership or teamwork in complex environments?

Edit bullet points to highlight these features, while staying truthful.

Step 5: Get Feedback from Multiple Angles

Ask for feedback from:

• A global health–oriented faculty member
• An advisor experienced with the osteopathic residency match
• A peer or recent graduate who matched into a global health–friendly program

Each will catch different issues: content gaps, DO-specific framing, clarity and readability.

Step 6: Update Regularly and Version-Track

Maintain:

• A “master CV” with everything
• A “residency CV” version tailored to the application phase
• Program-specific tweaks when appropriate (e.g., adding a line connecting your projects to maternal health if that’s a program focus)

Keep a change log so you can quickly update between M3, M4, and fellowship/job applications later.

---

FAQs: CV Building for DO Graduates in Global Health

1. Should I create a separate “Global Health” CV for residency?

Generally, no. You should maintain one main residency CV but place global health experiences prominently and integrate them throughout. If you are applying to a specific global health fellowship or NGO, you can create a customized version, but for the osteopathic residency match, a single, well-structured CV is usually best.

2. How do programs view short-term “medical mission trips” on a CV?

Short-term trips are acceptable if:

• They were supervised
• You describe them honestly and modestly
• They are part of a broader, long-term pattern of global or underserved engagement

They are not sufficient on their own to define you as a global health–oriented applicant. Use them as one data point among many, not your entire narrative.

3. Where should I put OMM/OMT on a global health–focused CV?

Highlight OMM/OMT in:

• Clinical Experience: When you used OMT in underserved settings or where imaging/PT were limited
• Skills: Under clinical skills, mention specific OMT techniques or applications if they’re relevant
• Global Health Experience: If you provided OMT as part of comprehensive care in low-resource or community clinics (with appropriate supervision)

The goal is to present OMT as a practical, patient-centered tool that enhances care, especially in low-resource or pain-management contexts.

4. I don’t have international experience. Can I still present myself as a strong global health candidate?

Yes. Many strong global health residency applicants have no international travel but rich experience with:

• Refugee and immigrant health
• Underserved urban or rural communities
• Public health, epidemiology, or implementation research
• Advocacy for health equity

Use your CV to highlight these experiences clearly and consistently. Global health is fundamentally about equity and systems, not about plane tickets.

---

By deliberately structuring your medical student CV and making thoughtful choices about what to emphasize, you can present yourself as a DO graduate whose values, skills, and trajectory align with global health residency tracks and programs committed to international medicine and health equity. Your CV becomes not just a record of what you’ve done, but a clear signal of the physician you are becoming—and the unique contribution you can make as an osteopathic doctor in global health.