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News Briefs... January 31, 2007 Indiana University
and the Global Health Honduras Project
The Department’s Hispanic Health Initiative meets this demand by improving health issues and eliminating health disparities facing Indiana’s Hispanic population. The Hispanic Health Initiative combines a systematic and methodical offering of educational, clinical, linguistic, service and research training and activities focused on medical students, public health students, and primary care residents. The Department created the Global Health Honduras Project in 2003 to expand and diversify medical education under the department’s Hispanic Health Initiative. Global Health Honduras Project is a partnership between the Department and the Honduran medical school located in Tegucigalpa. This new exchange program allows students at Indiana University to broaden cross cultural medical and global health experience by spending one month in Honduras.
For the medical brigade, Indiana University Department of Family Medicine faculty Javier F. Sevilla Martir, MD and Scott Renshaw, MD will be leading Indiana University School of Medicine students Melissa Bender, MS-IV; Anna Gensic, MS-IV; Tricia Kurtz, MS-IV; Audrey Wehr, MS-IV; Kristi Reiniker, MS-IV; Domingo Maynes, MS-IV; Sarah Lantz, MS-III; and Felipe Sobral, MSIII. Jennifer Custer, Program Manager at the Indiana University Department of Family Medicine will be leading four community volunteers Bob Custer, Kevin Rose, Steven Jeffries, and Cindy Haskell. They will see approximately 500 Hondurans as they travel to five different communities. The brigade will focus on the high risk population, children 5 years and under and adults 60 and over, however they will see and treat all. The public health intervention will be led by Joan Henkle, PhD, Indiana University Department of Public Health along with three Master of Public Health students Lynette Schrowe, Liz Emery, and Christina Mandzuk. During the week they will focus in one community where previous medical brigades have found a higher than normal incidence of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema and other pulmonary problems. Because this community is smoke-free, Dr. Henkle and her students will be performing indoor air quality assessments of the homes and providing lung capacity tests. It is believed that the method of cooking, using open-flame wood burning inside the home (with no chimneys or ventilation) is the cause of the problem. A related story can be found on page 6 of the Department of Public Health's Spring 2007 newsletter. To date, 21 medical students, 7 master in public health students, 1 master in health sciences student, 1 public health faculty, 1 family practice resident, and 6 family medicine faculty have participated. |
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From
1990-2000, Indiana’s population grew by 9.7%; the Hispanic
community grew by 117% and continued at a rate of 12% from
2000-2003. Indiana’s Hispanic population is rising; if the state
continues to mirror national trends, there is no slowdown in
sight. With these skyrocketing statistics, many question if
Indiana can meet the demands of this growing community,
particularly in the health care delivery system. In 2003, the
Indiana University Department of Family Medicine (the
Department) began to explore ways to address medical education
issues brought about by the significant growth of Indiana’s
Hispanic population.
Once
a year students participate in a 4-week elective in Honduras
where they work on a week-long medical brigade, rotate in local
hospitals and clinics, practice Spanish and learn life in a
developing country by living with host families. Additionally,
during the first week of the rotation, others travel to Honduras
to participate with the medical students in a one-week medical
brigade and public health intervention. A group of 21 will be
going to Honduras on February 1 to participate in the medical
brigade and public health intervention.