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and Community Medicine residency, he believes these experiences
are so important for trainees that he is working to
develop the program’s global health component.
Despite his prior connection to Ethiopia, Dr. Panzer admits it
is difficult to get established in sub-Saharan Africa. “Hopefully,
our clinical presence there will help foster closer relationships,”
he says.
Because Family and Community Medicine is a young
program (it launched in 2010), there have been a small number
of residents who have reached their third year of training and
could take advantage of a global health experience. By the end
of January, five out of eight eligible trainees will have participated
in rotations abroad, including experiences in Ethiopia,
Guatemala, Zambia, and Ecuador.
Dr. Adianez Albelo learned so much from her Ethiopian
adventure in May that she decided to return in October. Earlier
in the year, the resident helped deliver babies.
Although not speaking the language was a barrier, she went
back in October to help teach an Advanced Life Support in
Obstetrics (ALSO) course at Jimma University, one of the bigger
medical schools in Ethiopia. The three-day train-the-trainer
sessions were for family medicine residents and interns.
“Besides the language, the most difficult thing was not being
able to save every baby,” she says. “I most enjoyed the freedom
of being in a place where people are so welcoming and loving
and where life is simple and food is delicious. As a doctor, I think
it is hard to be in a place like this and not be touched every day.”
As for the future of international rotations in family medicine,
Dr. Panzer believes they are still in the discovery process.
“It’s fair to say that we are putting out feelers to see where it
makes the most sense to focus our efforts in a sustainable way.
We also have leads in Malawi and Peru.
“It’s easy to do this poorly and much harder to do it well,”
Panzer explains. “We want to do it well.”
FROM TOP: The Centro Medico Humberto Parra clinic
is open to about 35,000 rural residents of Bolivia
four days a week; Ophthalmology residents help
perform cataract surgeries at the Grewal Institute
in India; Pediatric residents volunteer for a fourweek
rotation at Bugando Medical Center in Tanzania;
Among the famous sights for residents to see in India
is the Taj Mahal.
ward rounds Fall/Winter 2012 — p.23