Asylum Medicine

Asylum medicine, a field encompassing medical forensic evaluations of asylum seekers, is an emerging discipline in healthcare. In a time of record global displacement due to human rights violations, conflict and persecution, interest in the medical and psychological evaluation of individuals subjected to torture and other ill-treatment is high. Health professionals are uniquely qualified to use their skills to make contributions to a group of vulnerable individuals fleeing danger and death in their home countries. 

Health professionals involved in asylum medicine perform medical and psychological forensic evaluations of asylum seekers. Their educational background prepares them to examine and describe physical and emotional scars related to trauma, and further training allows them to assess these scars in the context of persecution, describe them in a medical-legal affidavit and support these findings with testimony. Providers of asylum medicine are often involved in advocacy, as many governments become increasingly hostile to asylum seekers. 

Books on human rights exist, but there is no authoritative text of asylum medicine. This book presents a comprehensive overview of asylum medicine, with emphasis on the historical and legal background of asylum law, best practices for performing asylum examinations, challenges of examining detained asylum seekers, education of trainees and advocacy. Written by experts in the field, Asylum Medicine: A Clinician's Guide is a first of its kind resource for health care providers who practice asylum medicine.

“The book is very well organized. While it is eminently readable cover-to-cover as an introduction to the discipline, it also serves well as a convenient, point-of-care quick reference resource. … this is an important contribution to the resources for individuals involved in care of such patients. It is very accessible in terms of the writing style and organization. It will be a valuable addition to the library of any physician who works with immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.” (Mark K. Huntington, Family Medicine, Vol. 55 (2), 2023)

Katherine C. McKenzie, MD, FACP is a faculty member at Yale School of Medicine and the Director of the Yale Center for Asylum Medicine (YCAM).  She has practiced medicine at Yale for over 20 years. She teaches undergraduates, students and residents, and is a member of Yale Refugee Health Program. She is a physician advocate for social justice and human rights.

Since 2007, Dr. McKenzie has been the director of the YCAM, where she performs medical forensic evaluations and testifies as an expert witness for asylum seekers referred by law schools, human rights organizations, and immigration attorneys. She has written reviews, clinical cases and opinion pieces on asylum medicine in publications including the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of General Internal Medicine, the British Medical Journal, the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, Time magazine and CNN, among others.

At Yale, she received the Leonard B. Tow Award for Humanism in Medicine and the Faculty Award for Achievement in Clinical Care. She has been named a “Top Doctor” for many years by Connecticut Magazine.  She is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.

Dr. McKenzie earned a bachelor’s degree in Molecular, Cellular and Development Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She received her medical degree from Boston University and completed her residency in internal medicine at University Hospital in Boston. She has been certified with the American Board of Internal Medicine since 1995.