Jesuit Medical Collaborative

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Mission to Ghana

Sponsor	Virginia McCarthy	Contact	Virginia McCarthy e: vmccarthy@lumc.edu p: 708-216-6318
Location	Accra, Ghana
Mission	We are delighted to offer two collaborative trips this year. The trip to Ghana builds on an array of partnerships. First, students and health professionals from the four Jesuit Medical schools are invited to participate in this trip. Secondly, we are inviting partner medical students and physicians from Ghana to join this trip. Finally, the trip will  an interdisciplinary adventure coordinated by the vibrant organization, Global Brigades. This trip will accommodate up to four Loyola students who see themselves engaging both in the initiatives of the Jesuit Medical Collaborative over the course of their medical education, as well as working to foster the relationships formed and furthered through joint immersion and service in Ghana.
Duration and Time	June 7th - June 23rd
Estimated Cost	TBA
Field of Practice
Restrictions	Open to all students, regardless of year of study.

Mission to Bolivia

Sponsor	Virginia McCarthy	Contact	Virginia McCarthy e: vmccarthy@lumc.edu p: 708-216-6318
Location	Palacios, Bolivia
Mission	The group begins their journey Santa Cruz to prepare for clinical and health education time two hours outside of Santa Cruz in Palacios, Bolivia. The team will work at the Centro Medico Humberto Parra, where the two Global Health Fieldwork Fellows, various 4th year students, residents, attending physicians, and support staff from Loyola are seeking to staff the clinic throughout the year.  This clinic was started and is supported by Loyola nephrologist, Susan Hou, M.D. and her husband, Northwestern endocrinologist, Mark Molitch, M.D.  The ISI team will provide care in the clinic and surrounding communities, as well as round in the Hospital Japones in Santa Cruz, collaborating with local physicians and nurses to support ongoing outreach efforts to promote health and education among local residents.  We are thrilled to continue our partnership with the group in Bolivia, especially given the possibility that students who choose this ISI destination could likely return during an international elective in their fourth year, as well as through the Global Health Fund in the interim, thus creating a more sustainable model for our work both this year and into the future. This trip will accommodate three to four Loyola students who see themselves engaging in the initiatives of the Jesuit Medical Collaborative over the course of their medical education, as well as consider returning to Bolivia for an international elective during their fourth year. Bolivia Itinerary May 21-June 3, 2012 Sunday, May 20: Leave Chicago, take overnight flight to Santa Cruz Monday, May 21: Arrive in Santa Cruz in the am, settle in and shower, lunch at house, afternoon tour of the plaza, dinner in the plaza Tuesday, May 22: Tour of Hospital Japones, lunch at house, buy groceries, leave for clinic early Tuesday evening Wed, May 23- Sat, May 26: Clinic in Palacios Saturday, May 26: Dinner at Casa de Camba Sunday, May 27: Mariposario Monday, May 28: Leave for Samaipata in the early am Tuesday, May 29: Return to Santa Cruz in pm Wednesday, May 30- Saturday, June 2: Clinic Friday, June 1: Dinner together and swimming in Buena Vista Saturday, June 2: Pizza at Pizza Capri and ice cream at Freddos, pack and get ready to leave Sunday, June 3: Adios
Duration and Time	May 27th - June 9th
Estimated Cost	TBA
Field of Practice
Restrictions	Open to all students, regardless of year of study.

Medical / Clinic days

The last 4 days of the trip were clinic days. The first day we visited a different indigenous community and set up a clinic in their gathering place/church. This was a really cool experience because they would describe their medical problems in such a different way than we are used to. Like to say they were having pain somewhere they would sometimes describe it as that body part "falling asleep." They used a lot of metaphors. It was kind of confusing at first to understand what was wrong with them, but with patience we were able to figure it out. Again we had to have 2 translators, one from their indigenous language and another into Spanish which made understanding the metaphors even more difficult. Here we saw a lot of parasites, scabies, and I got to even see my first indirect inguinal hernia. It was on a man and he even allowed me to exam him which apparently was a big deal for this community because it has taken them a while to get warmed up to Global Brigades. That made me feel good that I made him feel comfortable and the whole day was a success in terms of medical care and building a stronger relationship with this community.

The last 3 days we went to another Latin community and set up the clinic in their school. This was a little bit easier because they all spoke Spanish and were more accustomed to medical care and our medical terms (I think they have clinics here every couple of weeks). Dr. Lyons, one of the pediatric physicians with us, showed me how to do a newborn exam which was really exciting for me. Again we saw a lot of parasites and scabies on the kids. We also saw 2 cases of Leishmaniasis. Before we got to Panama Dr. Michelfelder who has done like 16 trips like this had us all pick common diseases in the area and do just a short presentation on them so we could know what to look for. I wasn't too excited to be doing work the day after school ended, but really this was SO helpful. Not only was it a good review, but we also had a Panamanian doctor so he was able to tell us if the statistics we found were actually relevant in his practice and what he knew. That was one of my favorite parts of the trip as well.

Exploring Panama

In between the public health and medical portions of the trip we had 2 days to explore some of the communities in the area and get all of our meds ready for the upcoming clinic days.

A picture of the group after our hike up a small "mountain" to get an aerial view of the Embera village below. This is one of the indigenous tribes in this area of Panama.

The Embera village... the people recently moved their homes to be closer to the only road that goes through this part of Panama called the Panamanian highway. Because of this some of their farms are 2-3 miles away from where they live. That's a long commute to work on foot.

Public health/Building the latrines

The first part of our trip we worked with 3 families in a Latin community called Platania to help them build compost latrines. A latrine is basically an outhouse that the family can use as a bathroom but is also cool because it eventually makes fertilizer for their land. A big problem in Panama is sanitation. Most of these families before this project started were just using pit latrines. This is basically just a hole in the ground. The problem is that it rains everyday in Panama and so the pit latrines would constantly overflow causing a huge mess and lots of sanitation issues. (Some of the poorer parts of the communities that couldn't afford pit latrines would just have to go in the woods or the river which is obviously a way bigger issue).

Global Brigades started this project in this community by gathering people at town meetings and really getting them excited to have these latrines. The people who showed interest by attending all of the meetings but also had additional funds to pay for supplies would be able to get a latrine. The family I was assigned was the house of Senor Domingo. His wife was actually chosen to be the leader of the Platania latrine committee which was really cool because we knew that our hard work would actually get put to use!

My family was absolutely amazing and so hospitable. Senor Domingo was there with us all day every day helping out and his wife and daughters were so sweet. Senora Domingo brought us each a glass of soda at lunch on the first day which we ate on their front porch. One of the daughters and her aunt made us these traditional Panamanian sugar and fruit ice pops that were absolutely delicious and a great break to the heat. They were a long three days and a lot of work, but it was so rewarding to make such a big difference for this sweet family.

Living Conditions

We arrived at the Panama airport and it was nothing what I expected it to look like. There were skyscrapers everywhere, it felt like I was in Chicago. As soon as we found our group and did the awkward first introductions we were quickly shipped from this metropolitan city three hours east to one of the poorest parts of the country. We arrived at our "hotel" and I knew that in for a long 10 days ahead of me. (I took these photos at night the last day before we left so they are a little dark).



A picture from the back of the building which was completely open up the rain forest behind us. You can see us playing with one of the balloons that we handled out to the kids during the clinic days.



The stairs up to our bedroom on the right.

Panama - Jesuit Medical Collaborative 2012

This summer I participated in a global health project called the Jesuit Medical Collaborative. It was actually a brand new project started this year through Loyola's School of Medicine in Chicago. The goal was to work with all of the Jesuit medical schools in the Midwest area on a common global health project. We were able to get 2 students from here at SLU, 3 students from Creighton, and 5 students and 3 physicians from Loyola as well as the global health director Ginny from Loyola. The project was set up through Global Medical Brigades who recently started work in Panama and it was split up into public health and medical portions. We spent the first 3 days building latrines (basically an outhouse) for 3 of the families in one of the Latin communities. We then took 2 days in between to do some hiking in the rain forest and visiting with various indigenous communities in the area. The last 4 days we set up clinics first in the church of an indigenous community and then in a school for a Latin community. Overall the trip was 10 days long which was great for me because this was the first global health trip I had ever done and I wasn't sure how I would like it. Needless to say it was one of the best experiences of my life.

Mission to Panama

Sponsor	Virginia McCarthy	Contact	Virginia McCarthy e: vmccarthy@lumc.edu p: 708-216-6318
Location	Kuna Yala, Panama
Mission	We'll be partnering with Global Brigades, an international, non-profit, health and sustainable development organization near Kuna Yala, Panama. We'll be setting up a mobile clinic where in one of the communities during the days in which we provide medical and dental consultations and treatments, and a few days to experience some different projects through our Environmental and Public Health programs. The latter usually included pilas (a water storage unit), latrines, eco-stoves, and concrete floors for houses in Honduras, so the projects in our communities in Panama are probably similar. As far as our methods of operation, our medical services are free and we have a referral system for patients who need continued care, a medical records system (OpenMRS)for data collection and patient continuity, and we also train community health workers through our Guardianes de Salud program. These volunteers are community members who live in the villages we serve that we train and equip withresources they'll need to provide basic care and record keeping. As for the Public Health projects, the money comes from both a community investment fund through student donation and the buy-in and partnership of the community members themselves.
Duration and Time	Irregular  1 week
Estimated Cost	$1500-$1800
Field of Practice	Pediatrics
Restrictions	Open to all students, regardless of year of study.