I hope that everyone is having a great
Spring Break so far! I've been out of town this past weekend and this week is extremely busy for me trying to get things completed before my upcoming trip (which explains the lateness of this post). I won't be in town for the next seminar, but I'll create a post regardless and hopefully you guys (AFILers) can fill me in on what I missed.
As promised, here are some pictures of what a typical AFIL seminar looks like. I didn't get to take pictures of our first guest speaker (Dr. Dickey), but during the transition to our next speaker (Dr. Mann), I managed to grab a few shots.
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| Getting ready to listen to our guest speaker, Dr. Mann |
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| Amal |
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| Intense concentration |
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| Allison and Maria listening to Dr. Mann |
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| Mario |
Dr. Dickey and Dr. Mann touched on a number of points during our seminar. Here's a glimpse into some of the notes I took.
- 1 in 16 women die from childbirth in developing countries whereas 1 in 3,700 die in developed countries
- Association of Academic Health Center International -> takes students to study local diseases in developing countries, brings international students to the U.S to study, and videotapes faculty lectures to send abroad (or hosts webinars).
- Brain drain occurring in developing countries because of lack of infrastructure/lower pay
- Vaccines need to be made cheaper and more affordable to individuals living in countries where the average level of income per household is much lower
- *****Education and health disparities need to be smaller
- Global population could reach to 10 billion by 2050
- An architect has to think like someone from the public health or statistician fields (a 10,000 bed hospital may not be suitable for individuals living in a country where death is highly prevalent)
- Hospitals in countries with high temperatures (that cannot afford air conditioners) need to have natural ventilation
- "Vision is the art of seeing things invisible"
- *****"We shape our buildings and then they shape us" - Winston Churchill
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| Hospital in a developing country |
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| Hospital in a developed country |
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[economic growth/development]
In the United States, many of us take our access to healthcare for granted. Some of us are lucky enough to have insurance to cover some/most of the costs. Fortunately there are charitable clinics that provide their services to help the uninsured and under-insured patients. But what about the rest of the world?
Thoughts?
Excellent blog entry, Allan. Thank you for your faithfulness to the task. I trust other AFILers will join in the discussion. B. Petty
ReplyDeleteFor the past two summers I have worked at a children's hospital in Bolivia and I have been able to witness first hand the lack of proper health resources available in third world countries such as Bolivia. It was heartbreaking to see children being rejected from operations due to the lack of space, or see babies shiver because there were not enough blankets for everyone.
ReplyDeleteWhat I found most shocking though was not that there were not enough beds or blankets since that is somewhat expected in a poor hospital, but that the families of the patients were so oblivious to everything health related. I first noticed this when a mother brought in his 5 year old child who had one of his eyes shut. The boy had fallen on a wooden stub and hit his left eye. The mother instead of taking him to the hospital immediately, read some coca leaves for advice and continued with her daily chores. After a week the boy still couldn't open his eye and the mother finally took him to the hospital, where the doctor told me that the boy would loose his sight on that eye. Had the mother taken him earlier, the injury would have been fixed saving his eyesight.
I also noticed something similar in the neonatal wing of the hospital. A newborn was extremely sick and had been on an incubator for several days. By the end of the first week the parents were eager to take their baby home even against the doctor's wishes. The doctor told them that the baby might not survive if taken home at that time, but the parents could not afford to loose more work days and took the baby home anyways.
My point is that apart from teaching proper medical practices to doctors of other countries and donating funds and supplies to foreign hospitals, it is also crucial to teach the families of these communities about health. I feel that many of these communities are reluctant to visit hospitals, are doubtful of doctors' suggestions and would rather use their ancient practices to solve any medical problem. We should invest in teaching them otherwise.
It is necessary for us to have a good knowledge about health care. The information in the blog is informative to aware about health issues.
ReplyDelete_______________________________
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