Cultural Humility in The Global Economy: Telemedicine Projects

Cultural Humility is characterized by openness, self-awareness, and a respectful stance toward cultural difference. It emphasizes the limitations of cultural knowledge. Too, it advocates for continuous learning, the acknowledgment of power dynamics, and the prioritization of authentic, reciprocal engagement in cross-cultural contexts.

Definition understood, one might wonder what this looks like in practice within the global economy. I had the privilege of working with an organization in the medical and tech industries who exemplified Cultural Humility. Perhaps, as is my aim, this organization’s example will empower you to consider ways your own organization can build a framework rooted in Cultural Humility.

From November 2022 through March 2025 I served as the Director of Telemedicine Projects at Global Offsite Care, leading a diverse team of Project Managers and Engagement Liaisons in the successful aim of ensuring high quality healthcare isn’t reserved for those in well resourced urban environments, but is accessible to those existing within underserved communities. GOSC’s work to implement telemedicine projects ensured life-saving consultations, diagnostics, treatment, and practical solutions are possible where resources are limited.

While organizations in the western world often impose an imperialistic savior complex upon the international communities they serve, particularly if working with underserved populations, Global Offsite Care embarked on a different, integral, approach to their work. Two notable ways ways GOSC approached this work was to:

1. collaborate with local leaders and communities to co-create solutions

2. provide resources to empower communities in achieving self-sufficiency without western interference or the imposition of western ideologies and suggestion

These practices set the organization apart from organizations doing similar work. While GOSC’s network of physician specialists were likely to have eagerly and voluntarily participated in an on-call rotation where their expertise was readily accessible to doctors in rural regions across the globe, GOSC knew better than to embark on this approach. There were linguistic differences, vast time zone differences, and most compelling: cultural differences [i.e. values and taboos] to contend with. For instance, some telemedicine project sites valued traditional approaches to health over conventional medicine, whereas others wouldn’t have taken kindly to western suggestion to abort a fetus, or do not have the resources required to diagnose, treat, or perform certain procedures that a specialist in the western world would advise.

This acknowledgement of cultural difference and their refusal to impose their own notions as exclusively accurate led to their adoption of a spoke and hub model rooted in Cultural Humility. GOSC’s spoke & hub model began with creating a network of physician specialists within the same country as the rural medical clinics, fostering their interest in telemedicine, and connecting them to clinics that expressed a need for medical consultation, advisement, and the expertise, of a specialist (Global Offsite Care, 2025). GOSC then:

1. partnered with Rotarians [philanthropists] in the region who were interested in supporting the project financially, materially, and through on-site ongoing engagement

2. provided technologies (i.e. a handheld ultrasound that created imagery easily shared with specialists, computers, telephones, etc.) to support diagnostics and treatment remotely by way of telemedicine consults

3. coordinated training on how to best use the aforementioned technologies in medical practice

4. facilitated “train the trainer” courses to establish sustainability of the project, by ensuring numerous on-site physicians, nurses, and technicians were well trained in utilization of telemedicine

all of which empowered the region to continue providing life-saving medical care without the input of westerners.

To Cite This Article in APA7:

Drost, A.R. (2023). Cultural humility in the global economy: Telemedicine projects. The Braided Strategist. https://wwww.thebraidedstrategist.com/articles/cultural-humility-in-the-global-economy-telemedicine-projects

References

Global Offsite Care (2025) Brochure 2025. https://globaloffsitecare.org/brochure/

Discussion Questions

1. What practical steps might an organization within a different industry take to co-create solutions with local communities rather than imposing external frameworks - therefore exercising Cultural Humility?

2. How does acknowledging power dynamics influence the sustainability of global health projects like telemedicine? how about in different industries?

3. How are the potential limitations of GOSC’s utilization of a spoke and hub model that reflects a respect for local expertise, and what strategies might mitigate these limitations while still exercising Cultural Humility?

4. Is Cultural Humility a characteristic within your organization? how about within yourself as an individual, whether you are an experienced or emerging leader? and what might you do to further develop Cultural Humility?