16 March 2010

U.S., Haiti Experts Plan to Rebuild Medical Education System

January earthquake killed 73 doctors and nurses, damaged 30 hospitals

 

Patients wait to receive medical attention at a hospital in Port-au-Prince March 9.

Patients wait to receive medical attention at a hospital in Port-au-Prince March 9.

By Cheryl Pellerin
Science Writer

Washington ― More than 60 officials and medical-education experts from Haiti and the United States met in Washington March 15 to plan a strategy for shoring up Haiti’s devastated medical-education system and over time rebuilding the system to 21st-century standards.

Among the more than 250,000 who died as a result of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck near Port-au-Prince January 12 were 73 doctors, nurses and other health care providers. Thirty of Haiti’s 62 hospitals were severely damaged and more than 500 medical students are unable to finish their studies.

Haiti’s most urgent needs, said Dr. Gabriel Thimothe, director-general of Haiti’s Ministry of Health, include temporary or prefabricated buildings, training for emergency physicians, help getting medical students back in school, and psychological support for some of Haiti’s most beleaguered citizens.

“One challenge we are facing now,” Thimothe said, is “to provide psychological support to more than 4,000 people [with mental disorders]. Mental health was not a priority for the Ministry of Health but now it’s a critical issue to be addressed.”

For the nearly 10 million people in Haiti, he added, there are two doctors per 10,000 people and only 1.8 nurses. Fewer than 300 newly trained doctors per year graduate from medical school, and many leave to practice medicine in countries where salaries are higher.

Part of what is needed in Haiti, said Dr. Rubens Pamies, a meeting co-chair and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, is to rebuild educational and treatment facilities with the technical backbone to accommodate 21st-century treatment and education, including telemedicine.

COMMITMENT TO REBUILD

The meeting, hosted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health, arose from discussions with physicians in the Haitian diaspora about the devastation to Haiti’s medical-education system and the great loss of life among its doctors, nurses and medical and nursing students.

 

Earthquake-damaged homes are seen in the Canape Vert neighborhood of Port-au-Prince March 14.

Earthquake-damaged homes are seen in the Canape Vert neighborhood of Port-au-Prince March 14.

Attendees included U.S. and Haitian government officials ― including Raymond Joseph, Haitian ambassador to the United States, and Laura Petrou, chief of staff in the office of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius ― medical education and training leaders, physicians from U.S. academic health centers and historically black colleges and universities, and representatives of nongovernmental organizations.

Bringing greetings from Secretary Sebelius, Petrou added, “Since the earthquake President Obama asked us to pool our resources to do everything we could to be helpful. Hosting this meeting is just one small thing we’d like to do to give you the opportunity to talk together and try to address these problems.”

During the meeting, the experts shared recent experiences and explored short- and long-term needs and strategies for rebuilding Haiti’s medical education and training system, including acute and urgent needs, undergraduate and graduate medical education, infrastructure building, long-term needs and future collaborations. The experts also began work on a system that will help coordinate the broad range of international help on the ground in Haiti.

“We all appreciate very much the need to transition to recovery and to building a long-term, very sustainable infrastructure for health and health care in Haiti,” said Dr. Nicole Lurie, HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response. “Certainly medical education and health professions education is a huge part of that, and the losses to the medical education system in Haiti make that even more important.”

NEXT STEPS

At the end of the day-long meeting, said Dr. Garth Graham, HHS deputy assistant secretary for minority health, the experts agreed on a collaborative approach to rebuilding across schools of medicine, public health and allied health professions such as nursing and pharmacy. The group also agreed on the need to engage other nongovernmental and philanthropic organizations for resource support.

“At the end of the meeting, participants agreed to form steering work groups for undergraduate education, graduate education and systems and infrastructure building,” Graham said. “These three work groups will continue to develop and refine plans and strategies.”

A key outcome, he added, was an agreement to work collaboratively to implement strategies formulated during the meeting.

“We have to move forward despite this tragedy,” Thimothe told the attendees. “What I hope is that we can work with all of you around the table, all the universities and agencies that have an effective and quick response to needs which are very critical in Haiti. With this strong partnership, this commitment, we can move forward in Haiti.”

More information about the Haiti earthquake and disaster response is available through the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Haiti page and the Haiti Earthquake Fact Sheet #44 (PDF, 56KB).

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)