Download PDF - Ward Rounds - Northwestern University

forest, a pair of third-year internal medicine residents from
Northwestern arrive at Centro Medico Humberto Parra, a free
clinic located outside of Palacios, Bolivia. During a month-long
international health rotation, they will communicate almost
entirely in Spanish while volunteering at the rural clinic that
serves approximately 35,000 residents from 12 local villages.
Mark Molitch, MD, Martha Leland Sherwin Professor in the
Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Molecular Medicine
at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and his
wife, Susan Hou, MD, professor of medicine in the Division of
Nephrology and Hypertension at Loyola University-Chicago,
opened the rural clinic in 2001 which has since been responsible
for approximately 29,000 patient visits.
Open four days a week, the clinic enlists the help of U. S.
residents and medical student volunteers, many of whom come
from Northwestern and Loyola universities, to help care for this
indigent population under the supervision of volunteer
American and Bolivian physicians. Centro Medico provides free
primary healthcare, medication, health education, and other
services to those in need.
Since 2004, Northwestern has been offering internal medicine
residents a structured global health elective at the clinic.
The rotation, developed by Drs. Molitch and Hou, includes
clinical experiences in rural and urban locations as well as
weekly formal lectures and case discussions. Residents help
treat patients with tropical diseases such as Chagas’ disease,
malaria, Dengue fever, snake bites, anthrax, and yellow fever,
as well as more common diseases like diabetes, hypertension,
and arthritis.
“The residents and students learn how to manage these
tropical and common diseases using the limited resources and
medications available at Centro Medico,” says Dr. Molitch. “They
also learn cultural differences with regard to these patients’
lives and how they relate to illness. Overall, the experience that
LEFT: Northwestern and Loyola
university residents and medical
students help staff the nonprofit
clinic in Palacios, Bolivia.
RIGHT: McGaw residents are
present eight or nine months a
year to help treat children in
Mwanza, Tanzania.
300 Northwestern medical students and
residents around the globe.
“When the medical school recently
asked us about funding resident global
health experiences, we thought it would
be a wonderful complement to what
we’ve been doing,” says Cynthia Horvath
Garbutt, JD, executive director of The
Global Health Initiative at Chicago Lake
Shore Medical Associates. “There is no
question about the value of these experiences
for medical students. But there’s an
added value of sending a resident, who
enhances and increases that impact as a
more knowledgeable caregiver. It is life
changing for all involved.”
Garbutt continues, “We started with
one idea and it’s really prospered. The
doctors at CLSMA are committed to the
idea of aiding in the professional development
of Northwestern medical
students and residents. This is an
uncommon, innovative program that
benefits many here and in underserved
regions worldwide.”
ward rounds Fall/Winter 2012 — p.21