Des Moines Register
11-28-07
Doctor urges students to do medical work outside U.S.
BY JODY GIFFORD • SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER • November 28, 2007
By day, Dr. Yogesh Shah is a geriatrician at Mercy Medical Center. But he
believes his job as associate dean of the Global Health Program at Des Moines
University is where he makes the biggest difference in the world.
Global Health, a program that allows students to bring their medical expertise to
people worldwide, was founded just more than a year ago and already has made
lasting connections in countries like Belize and El Salvador.
Shah talked about what it means for medical students to make these trips.
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"There are 10 million children under the age of 5 who die throughout the world,"
he said. "If our missions make a difference in just two kids per mission, I think
that would be worthwhile."
Q. What is the Des Moines University Global Health program?
A. The Global Health program started a year ago to help medical students on
campus by exposing them to medical health all over the world.
Q. What is the history behind the program?
A. In 2005, a student wanted to take a few students to Belize. To do that, faculty
was needed. An e-mail was sent to physicians asking if there was someone who
could go, and I was the only one who responded.
By the time the word got out, there were about 12 students interested but only
one physician, and the requirement was that you had to have one physician per
four students. A few other doctors agreed, so we had a nice group of about 16
physicians and students.
Dr. Kendall Reed, dean and professor of surgery at Des Moines University,
decided that it was worthwhile to pursue, and on the way back he asked me to
help develop some kind of program on campus.
In November 2006, we officially started. The school has committed $100,000,
with each student getting $2,000 for the trip. We can now support about 50
students, and there are enough physicians throughout Iowa who said they are
interested in being a part of Global Health.
Q. What do students learn on these medical missions?
A. The short trips are student-driven. They get to decide how many other
students they need, what supplies they need to take, what arrangements they
need to make.
In Belize, we set up three different clinics at three different sites, so the students
decide who goes where based on experience, language skills and so on.
Students learn what medicine is like in other parts of the world, how medicine is
done without labs or access to simple things such as ultrasounds for pregnant
patients. The idea is to expose them to global health.
If we have touched them enough to make this a part of their career, they'll go
back in their third or fourth year doing longer rotations.
The Belize trips were only seven days, but in their later years students can get
elective time up to eight weeks to do global health. If they like the short trip, they
can go to other parts of the world and, hopefully, when they become physicians
they can continue to serve in the United States as well as globally.
Q. To what countries have students in the Global Health program traveled?
A. Students have been to India, Africa, Central America. Through Global Health,
we have been to Belize twice, and now we have developed relations with El
Salvador, the Yucatan. We also have good contacts in South Africa and, through
Iowa State University, Uganda.
Three students also just came back from Mali.
Q. Where was the most recent medical mission, and what was accomplished?
A. We went to Belize in July. There were 20 participants - 16 students and four
faculty. We saw about 1,500 patients between three clinic sites.
Before we get there, the word is already out that a group of doctors from the
United States will be coming with medications and other supplies. People line up
outside the clinic area with their large families.
It's an experience, and usually these are students who are pre-clinical students
so they are seeing patients, some for the first time. Instead of spending two
hours on each patient, they learn how to see patients quickly, in 10-15 minutes.
They learn how physicians can make a diagnosis without any labs and quickly,
with the few things we have, and how to treat patients.
Q. How are these medical missions contributing to the medical field?
A. One way is that many students learn about medicine outside the United
States. We want them to be touched by the needs of the rest of the world and
know they can make a difference.
- Jody Gifford is a freelance writer from West Des Moines.