Da Nang General and Da Nang Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Hospital
We are pleased to announce our affiliation with both Da Nang General, a state hospital that delivers the largest portion of care to the indigent, and Da Nang Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Hospital. These two clinical sites offer fairly sophisticated and diverse medical care with very limited resources to underserved and poor populations. As a tertiary referral center, Da Nang General offers a wide spectrum of subspecialty care to a large catchment area (approximate population of 4 million). Da Nang Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Center is a private facility which receives state funding and provides indigent as well as fee for service care.
Because of the sophistication and broad spectrum of existing health care services, this is a unique opportunity for high skilled and sub-specialty trained physicians to practice their sub-specialty skills in a low resourced and underserved communities.
Matibabu – Ugenya, Kenya
Founded in 2004 by Kaiser Permanente oncologist Gail Wagner, MD, and colleagues, The Tiba Foundation partners with The Matibabu Foundation to provide medical care, training, and equipment to residents of Ugenya, Kenya, an extremely poor and disadvantaged area near Lake Victoria. Matibabu is the Swahili word for “treatment.” Matibabu provides primary care services, pediatrics, women’s health, tropical medicine, and HIV/AIDS care to thousands of rural Kenyans.
Clinical rotations with Matibabu for residents beyond their first year must be coordinated with a board certified physician who agrees to provide resident supervision during the clinical elective.
University Teaching Hospital – Lusaka, Zambia
PLEASE NOTE: This program is currently suspended.
Kaiser Permanente is pleased to announce its latest global health affiliation with The University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, Zambia. As the major secondary and tertiary referral institution for all of Zambia, UTH has become the final destination of the unsolved medical problems of the population. Approximately 68% of Zambians live below the recognized national poverty line and the United Nations reports the average live expectancy at 33 years. HIV/AIDS currently poses the largest health threat and malaria still remains a major problem for the country.
UTH is an academic medical center/university hospital providing a full range of primary, secondary, and tertiary health and medical services on both an inpatient and outpatient basis. Our residents will rotate along with Zambian residents in clinical rotations and experience the first-hand challenge of providing medical education in a resource poor country. The high volume sub-specialty pediatric programs such as the HIV Center of Excellence and the Severe Malnourished Children Ward provide a unique learning opportunity.
Bay Area Surgical Mission
For more than 10 years, Bay Area Surgical Mission (BASM) has provided free medical care to those with little or no access to healthcare in Camarines Norte, a remote province of the Philippines. The local economies are poor and social services are limited to non-existent. Many children and adults suffer with disease and disability that would be considered correctable by Western standards.
BASM consists of a small group of volunteer physicians, nurses and medical technicians who envision a world where the underserved can access necessary medical care without financial barriers. The Bay Area Surgical Mission’s Team will typically run 4 operating rooms for cases requiring general anesthesia. Surgical services represented include Pediatric HNS, HNS, Ob/Gyn.
In addition to providing medical care, BASM is committed to working with the communities they serve to educate local care providers and to improve the standard of care for residents in the long term.
Faces of Tomorrow
Faces of Tomorrow’s (FOT) mission is to provide medical and surgical services to children with facial deformities around the world. They are culturally responsive and compassionate to the patients, their families, and the communities in which the mission serves.
FOT provides medical treatment to an underserved population of children, youth, and adults who might otherwise not receive the benefit of surgical treatments for their cleft lip or cleft palate. Their primary services are corrective surgeries, remedial and corrective dental prosthesis, speech analysis and remedial services to families and their children to improve speech difficulties. Remedial educational services to families for pre/post op care, remedial health and wellness educational services to families regarding prenatal nutrition, and group discussions workshops.
Faces of Tomorrow provides these services through a team of surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, dentists, speech therapist, health educators, administrators, social workers and in-country volunteers.
Hospital de la Familia
The Hospital de la Familia (HDLF) Hospital in Nuevo Progresso, Guatemala offers year around medical care to the indigenous poor of the area. The hospital treats about 8,000 patients per year in the outpatient clinics. The local doctors have been trained to pre-screen and triage patients for the teams of American surgeons that come to the hospital on an average of 5 times per year for stays of 1.5 – 2 weeks. We see a high incidence of under-treated chronic conditions due to the lack of access of health care in the area.
The typical surgical team consists of about 40 surgeons, nurses, and assistants. We usually bring specialists in the areas of general surgery, head & neck surgery, plastic surgery, obstetrics-gynecology, and ophthalmology. An internist or pediatrician may accompany the team to provide medical assessment of the surgical patients, to work in the malnutrition clinic, or consult with the Guatemalan doctors. Our teams evaluate about 6,000 patients per year and operate on about 1,000 per year. We see a high incidence of under-treated chronic conditions due to the lack of access of health care in the area.
Our outpatient facility operates a 9 exam room clinic and our 72 bed hospital has wards for men, women, and pediatric patients. In addition to the clinical and surgical services described above, the hospital runs a pharmacy, a malnutrition clinic, and a variety of educational services including a school for the campesinos’ children, nurse training, midwife training, “barefoot” doctor training (first aid and disease recognition), and sewing classes to promote employable skill sets.
ENLACE
ENLACE Honduras foundation is a non-profit medical relief organization, founded by Javier F. Sevilla-Mártir, MD, which supports primary care clinical services for the rural population of Taulabé, Honduras. It is located in the central Comayagua region, a two-hour drive from the capital of Tegucigalpa.
The clinic serves 60,000 people from 58 communities within a 5-mile radius of the clinic. In addition to primary care services with an adult and pediatric focus, part-time services are provided once a week by a dentist, psychologist, and gynecologist. The facility is a newly-completed two-story building that includes 4 examination rooms, a pharmacy, and potential space for a birthing center and operating room. There is the potential for a small lab and equipment for plain radiographs. Plans are underway to establish an operating room and to employ a local anesthetist. Current volunteer clinical opportunities exist primarily for Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Obstetrics-Gynecology with potential future opportunities for general surgeons.
There are accommodations for up to 32 visitors on the second floor, including a full-service kitchen with on-site cooks. Interpreters are necessary if a visiting health professional is not already fluent in Spanish. Interpreters may be hired to assist with patient care. Additionally, the rotation would include 1-2 hours of language training each afternoon.
Note: ENLACE charges for rotations may exceed Global Health Program funding limits. Any costs in excess of funding limits are carried by the resident or volunteer staff physician.
Cacha Medical Spanish Institute
Cacha Medical Spanish Institute (Cachamsi), founded in 2004, is a clinical volunteer and intensive medical Spanish program located in Riobamba, Ecuador. Riobamba is a city of >150K people located at 9035 ft elevation in the Andes about 3 hours drive from Quito, Ecuador. Clinical programs for Cachamsi serve the city of Riobamba and surrounding rural communities.
Clinical experiences can be tailored to the interest and experience level of the participants, including pre-medical students, medical students, residents or practicing clinicians. The program can accommodate primary care specialties, as well as most sub-specialists. Clinical time is scheduled in the mornings at any of the various clinics throughout the area, or at one of the affiliated hospitals.
Medical Spanish language classes are scheduled for 2.5 hours in the afternoons, Monday-Thursday. Students are placed into one of three Spanish proficiency levels based on a pre-test. Cachamsi has developed a specific teaching methodology which is highly effective and utilizes video pre- and post-course as a teaching tool and for student feedback.
Note: Housing is provided by the program and included in the program fees. Accommodation will not be reimbursed if reserved at a location not offered by the program.
Tibetan Delek Hospital
PLEASE NOTE: Rotations at the Tibetan Delek Hospital must be a minimum of 4 weeks. Applications for this program must be submitted at least 4-5 months prior to your dates of travel.
The Tibetan Delek Hospital is a Tibetan hospital founded in 1971, serving Tibetan residents, the local Indian community in the foothills of the Himalayas, as well as tourists from around the world. His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, is the hospital’s patron. The 45-bed charitable hospital provides general medical care that includes specialized services for TB, the single most serious infectious disease that threatens the Tibetan population and new arrivals from Tibet. In collaboration with Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Delek Hospital has recently launched an initiative to eradicate TB from the community.
Delek also has strong maternal and child health care programs, a service sorely lacking in the area. User fees are kept exceptionally low so that the poor can afford treatment in this hospital.
Additionally, Delek Hospital maintains a strong partnership with the Tibetan Medicine school, Men-Tsee Khang, which is located next door to the hospital. This brings forth cross referrals and interdisciplinary case discussions.
See more detailed program information here.