Tamas Fülöp Award - The network - Towards Unity For Health

several electives, so a lot of the time they
project was on the assessment and treat-
are away from Rockford. We always have a
ment of depression in older adults in rural
number of research projects, but not
Illinois. I grew up on a farm in a small rural
always a lot of students around. Therefore,
community in the Netherlands, and geriat-
it was handy for us that Maastricht stu-
ric medicine has always drawn my atten-
dents could help us with the projects; and
tion; therefore, this project was perfect for
we helped them gain experience.
me. Rural medicine gets special attention
at the University of Illinois in Rockford.
Lieke Vogels came in October 2007, for the
There is a special programme for rural
18 week research participation. It is impor-
medical students, so it was the perfect
tant to have 18 weeks; you need this time.
location for this project.
We did a project on what primary care doctors
know about and how they treat
Throughout this experience, I have realised
depressions in older people. Ten years
that management of geriatric depression
before that, a colleague and I had done a
survey of rural doctors in Illinois, to find
out how they treated depression in older
people. It would be useful to conduct a
survey on that population 10 years later.
Lieke and I are writing a paper now to
publish her study findings. We have analysed
the results and now we are writing a
paper so we can submit it to a US peerreviewed
journal.
I think a strength of students coming to
Rockford is that it is very easy for us to put
them in contact with doctors and patients,
so they can actually go out and collect
their own data. At other universities the
research might be more clinical; ours is
clinical in a way, but also social and behavioural.
They actually get to know people,
and they get to know how the healthcare
system works and how it effects the people
that are using that system.
Michael Glasser | Associate Dean,
Centre for Rural Health Professions,
College of Medicine at Rockford,
University of Illinois, USA
Email: michaelg@uic.edu
As a 6 th year Dutch medical student, I
went all the way to Rockford, Illinois for
my research participation. My research
in rural areas in the US remains an area of
concern, as there is poor access to mental
healthcare. Although more than 20% of
the US population lives in places defined
as rural, only 9% of all physicians practice
in these communities. Better recruitment
of psychologists and counsellors in rural
regions is needed to improve depression
care. Furthermore, the results of the study
strongly support integration of mental
healthcare in primary care practices. This
approach is quite similar to the change
you see in the Netherlands; an increasing
amount of family physicians share the
office with psychologists.
Finishing my research project was my main
goal in Rockford, but another reason to
choose for Rockford was the fact that I
always wanted to experience the American
way of life. And I certainly did! I shared my
apartment with a medical student. This
made it very easy to integrate with other
medical students and local people. I was
the only exchange student at the College
of Medicine, so everybody was really interested
and willing to help. All people I met
have been very generous and I have made
some precious friendships. I have even
been a bridesmaid at a friend’s wedding!
This made my stay in the US a wonderful
experience.
Ms. Lieke Vogels
Lieke Vogels / Student, Faculty of Health,
Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht
University, the Netherlands
Email: liekevogels@hotmail.com
I think a
strength of
students
coming to
Rockford is
that it is very
easy for us to
put them in
contact with
doctors and
patients, so they
can actually go
out and collect
their own data.
J U L Y 2 0 0 8 N E W S L E T T E R N U M B E R 0 1 | V O L U M E 2 7
25