With properly designed programs, universities can offer transformative benefits to patients, educators, and students.

Ethical questions raised during “immersions” include scope of practice, continuity of care, and erosion of local health systems. This is a perspective of one volunteer in a related field.

Low-resource areas are heterogeneous and changing, so establishing an evidence base for decision making about technology use is an important priority.

Within the United States, many “immersions” happen in student-run indigent care clinics that serve vulnerable populations.

If not planned and executed thoughtfully, “immersions” might not provide much benefit to communities they seek to serve.

One quarter of medical students are drawn to these international education experiences to develop cultural sensitivity and clinical skills. But what else do they learn?

Medications now challenge clinicians to consider market influences such as pharmaceutical manufacturing, pricing strategies, and patients’ resources.

Ethics questions arise about the usefulness of a system that pegs Medicaid drug spending to net prices negotiated by others in the market.

Advances in CEA methodology might integrate equity at the cost of transparency.

Case-based teaching, longitudinal application, and training in ethical deliberation can better prepare physicians to responsibly prescribe and manage opioids.