Annual Program Report 2004 - American International Health Alliance

PARTNER PROFILES
Dr. Steve Rith-Najarian has been practicing
family medicine in and around Bemidji,
Minnesota, since 1986 when he became a commissioned
officer in the US Public Health Service’s
Indian Health Service and was assigned to provide
care to Native Americans living on the Red Lake
Reservation. In addition to primary care and epidemiology,
some of his professional interests
include the prevention and management of diabetes,
hypertension and other chronic ailments.
“Just as patients with chronic illness have to examine
their lifestyle choices, we have to examine
choices we make in the organization of our clinical
practice,” he says, explaining that
this connection is one that all too
clearly underscores the close relationship
between continuous
quality improvement and effective
public health programs.
A keen interest in this link played
an important role in Steve’s decision
to participate in a primary
healthcare partnership that AIHA
established between a coalition of
health-related institutions in
Bemidji and the Russian city of
Tomsk in 2000 and a subsequent
alliance formed in 2004 between
the northern Minnesota town
and Saratov, Russia, to address
the latter community’s growing
HIV/AIDS epidemic.
From the beginning, both partnerships – like all
twinning alliances AIHA creates – focused on peerto-peer
exchanges of knowledge, information and
hands-on practical skills. One thing that became
apparent early on was that the American and Russian
healthcare providers shared the common goal of
providing the best possible care for their patients.
Family practitioner Steve Rith-Najarian
says he learned as much from his Russian
partners as they have learned from him.
“Our partners are eager to embrace the public
health model and adopt the principles of continuous
quality improvement to make positive changes
within their own community’s health systems,”
Steve says, noting that it is an inspiration to work
together with his Russian counterparts to develop
and implement exciting new programs and services.
“It’s important to point out that I’ve learned as
much or more through my affiliation with these
partnerships as I’ve shared, and this makes my
job at home a lot easier,” he continues. “At the
end of each exchange, I feel a sense of professional
growth and personal enrichment that
make the commitment of time and energy well
worth the effort.”
Photo: Courtesy of Steve Rith-Najarian
For Steve and the other US healthcare
providers and allied professionals
involved with the partnerships,
their work not only broadens their
horizons by introducing them to
other people, cultures and different
ways of doing things, it also
strengthens their sense of community
at home. “We’ve all learned
many valuable lessons from our
partnership experience, not the least
of which is to be more open and
flexible. Our shared experience has
opened the door to collaboration
among people and organizations
here that previously had no connection
just as it has enhanced existing
relationships,” he says.
On an international level, the partnerships
go a long way toward improving understanding
and goodwill on both sides, he explains,
concluding, “America has historically had a tendency
to be relatively ethnocentric, which can create
wide cultural barriers. Partnerships break
down these barriers allowing us to get past our
real or perceived differences and make lasting
connections based on our commonalities and
shared goals of making real improvements in
patient care.”
Annual Program Report 2004 33