Tag Archives: Global Health Program

Student organization receives support from Asian American Chamber of Commerce

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Joseph Melookaran, president of the Asian American Chamber of Commerce of Kansas City, presented a $1,000 check to Sean Davidson, officer of the UMKC Chapter of GlobeMed, to support the group's work in providing health and economic improvements to impoverished areas overseas. Pictured are Isha Jain, MS 4, GlobeMed alumna, Stuart Munro, M.D., chairman of the Department of Medical Humanities and Social Sciences, Melookaran, Parker Webb, politcal science major and GlobeMed officer, Davidson, AnnaMaria Maples, MS 2, GlobeMed officer, and Sook Park, executive director of the Asian American Chamber of Commerce.
Joseph Melookaran, president of the Asian American Chamber of Commerce of Kansas City, presented a $1,000 check to Sean Davidson, officer of the UMKC Chapter of GlobeMed, to support the group’s work in providing health and economic improvements to impoverished areas overseas. Pictured are Isha Jain, MS 4, GlobeMed alumna, Stuart Munro, M.D., chairman of the Department of Medical Humanities and Social Sciences, Melookaran, Parker Webb, political science major and GlobeMed officer, Davidson, AnnaMaria Maples, MS 2, GlobeMed officer, and Sook Park, executive director of the Asian American Chamber of Commerce.

When the Asian American Chamber of Commerce of Kansas City began looking for an organization with which to share proceeds from its benefit golf tournament, it landed on the UMKC GlobeMed organization.

Joseph Melookaran, president of the Asian American Chamber of Commerce of Kansas City, and Sook Park, executive director, presented a $1,000 check to the student organization on Wednesday, Nov. 20, at the School of Medicine to help support the group’s global mission of improving the health of those in impoverished areas.

UMKC GlobeMed chapter members Sean Davidson, MS 3, Isha Jain, MS 4, Parker Webb, political science student, and AnnaMaria Maples, MS 2, were on hand to receive the donation.

“Most of our fundraising is from events that we run on campus and individual donations from people in the UMKC and KC communities,” Jain said. “We get donations from local business and organizations to help run our events, but this is the first time we have received a monetary donation from a local organization that will directly benefit our partner.”

More than 1,500 undergraduate students at 50 university-based chapters throughout the United States participate in GlobeMed with each chapter partnered with a grassroots health organization in one of 19 countries throughout Africa, Asia, North America, and South America.

The UMKC chapter began a partnership this fall with the Kyetume Community Based Health Program in Mukono, Uganda, to build a health care center in rural Uganda and provide health care, educational and financial support to help solve health, education and economic problems that plague the population in the area.

SOM remembers Professor Emeritus William Wu

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Wu
Wu

William Wu, M.D., a long-time friend of UMKC and professor emeritus at the School of Medicine died June 18, 2013. Wu was a compassionate doctor who lived an extraordinary life.

In his autobiography, “Monsoon Season,” published in 1996, Wu recounts his early childhood in a Chinese peasant village in Toisan, his later childhood in the Chinatown of Philadelphia, and his experiences as a surgeon with the 22nd Field Hospital of the U.S. Army. He was awarded a Bronze Star during the war for treating wounded soldiers. He came to Kansas City in 1950 and became the first nonwhite doctor to break the color line in the local medical society.

Knowing the struggles Chinese students face and hoping to advance friendship and understanding between the Chinese and Americans, Wu created the William Q. Wu Merit Scholarship Fund in 1990. The fund assists Chinese students studying at UMKC and UMKC students studying in China. UMKC International Academic Programs manages the scholarship fund.

Donations in Dr. Wu’s honor may be made to the William Q. Wu Merit Scholarship Fund c/o UMKC Foundation, 202 Administrative Center, 5100 Rockhill Rd., Kansas City, Mo., 64110. The scholarship was created in 1990 to promote U.S.-China student exchanges and intercultural relations. Services will be at 2 p.m. on the deceased’s birthday, Nov. 11, 2013, at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 6401 Wornall Terr., Kansas City, Mo., 64113.

Health science schools celebrate International Health Care Day

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Stuart Munro, M.D., (left) catches up with Henry Lin, M.D., '06, the keynote speaker for the 2013 International Health Care Day on April 16 at the School of Medicine.
Stuart Munro, M.D., (left) catches up with Henry Lin, M.D., ’06, the keynote speaker for the 2013 International Health Care Day on April 16 at the School of Medicine.

Students and faculty from the schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy shared their global health care experiences during the second annual International Health Care Day, renamed from International Medicine Day to reflect its interdisciplinary participation, on April 16 at the School of Medicine.

“International health is one of the best areas where interdisciplinary education can occur,” said Stuart Munro, M.D., chair of the new Department of Medical Humanities and Social Sciences, and head of the UMKC School of Medicine International Medicine Committee.

Henry Lin, M.D., ’06, an advanced fellow in pediatric transplant hepatology at Northwestern was the keynote speaker. Lin focused on ways to assess the sustainability of short-term medical mission trips and shared his experiences in the Dominican Republic, where he has volunteered every year since 2006.

“How do you balance the need to develop sustainability, and we have this growing volunteer population,” Lin said. “We need to promote the populations (we are visiting) to become independent.”

Lin has formed an interdisciplinary team, which has morphed throughout the years, attracting members from throughout the United States and Canada to travel with him to the Dominican Republic.

“What we’re trying to do is figure out, is there a way that we can shift the balance of benefits toward the global community,” Lin said.

Four SOM students and one faculty member were presenters. Apurva Bhatt, MS 3, Rucha Kharod, MS 5, and Raza Hasan, MS 5 each spoke about their trips to India for an infectious disease rotation. Matt Goers, MS 6, community coordinator for Partners in Health (PIH), presented his experiences overseas and his involvement in the PIH Engage Initiative. Charlie Inboriboon, M.D., assistant professor of emergency medicine, spoke about his experiences in teaching and supporting students in trips abroad. Inboriboon came to the School last year from the University of Rochester, which is known for its focus on global medicine. His research interests include emergency medicine development in Thailand, integrating global health and medical education and qualitative, community-based participatory research.

All of the day’s presenters shared common benefits of international health care experiences including, learning, opening their eyes to new cultures and ways of life, and hoping for long-term aid in the places they visited.

Lin said he was reminded of a quote from Henry Ford, “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, but actually working together is success.” Lin said, “For all of us who are invested in doing community development, global health work, that’s the key, ‘are we actually working together?’”

SOM professor makes emergency medicine presentations to international audiences

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Gary Gaddis, M.D., Ph.D.

Gary Gaddis, M.D., Ph.D., professor and Saint Luke’s/Missouri Endowed Chair for Emergency Medicine, has been busy with presentations and teaching to international audiences.

Gaddis was one of more than 20 American physicians to speak in October at an international congress for improving emergency medicine in East Asia. He gave presentations on the topics of how to review manuscripts and abstracts and on clinical decision making in an emergency department at the first Pan-Pacific Emergency Medicine Congress (PEMC) 2012.

The four-day event, a joint meeting of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine and the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine, took place at the COEX Convention Center in Seoul, South Korea, to help developing countries establish emergency medicine systems.

Gaddis was invited to give presentations in Spanish at the IV World Congress in Emergency Medicine and Disasters at Playa del Carmen, Mexico, on Nov. 15-16. His presentations will focus on the criteria for early diagnosis of sepsis in the emergency department and medication-related problems including drug interactions that are critical emergencies.

He also served as a guest instructor in basic research skills in emergency medicine at the headquarters of the American College of Emergency Physicians in Irving, Texas, on Nov. 9-10, presenting to physicians from the United States, Canada, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

University of Iowa physician delivers annual Goodson Lecture

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Mark Wilson, M.D., M.P.H., professor and director of graduate medical education at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics, delivered the 2012 William Goodson Lectureship on Nov. 9 at the UMKC School of Medicine.

Patients deserve the best from their physicians. That means pursing the mastery of good doctoring as a 21st Century physician, said Mark Wilson, M.D., professor and director of graduate medical education at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Wilson spoke to physicians and residents at the 26th annual William Goodson Lectureship on Nov. 9 at the UMKC School of Medicine.

Wilson is a general internist who launched a cross-departmental initiative in chief resident leadership development at the University of Iowa. He also implemented a certificate program in educational leadership for program directors.

Wilson said he believes there are things in the current medical education environment that are impairing the aspirations of resident physicians.

“Many of the messages they get are focused just on competency and not on mastering the pursuit (of excellence) and not on an excitement about pursuing that mastery,” Wilson said.

Wilson serves as chair of the AAMC’s Group on Resident Affairs and is part of the advisory committee to the GME Leadership Development Program. He said that graduate medical education program should have clear educational plans for training resident physicians and that if programs conduct graduate education in the same way as undergraduate medical education, “we’re not allowing the residents the thrill of discovering what they’re passionate about pursuing because we’re giving them prepackaged information.”

Wilson discussed factors that influence a person to pursue a mastery of their profession such as an inner drive and passion for the task at hand. It’s also important, he said, to spend time with true masters of their craft and to have exposure to role models, coaches and mentors.

Mastery requires that knowledge be laced with keen observation and communication skills as well as a curiosity and fascination with the human condition, Wilson said.

Many things, he said, must take place for one to be productive and successful in health care. That includes teamwork and encouragement along the way.

“It’s important that learners know that it is possible to master their pursuit,” Wilson said.

SOM co-sponsors annual Medical Missions Conference

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Nick Comninellis, M.D., ’82

Health care professionals and organizations that serve the forgotten participated in the 6th annual Institute for International Medicine (InMed) Exploring Medical Missions Conference, co-sponsored by the UMKC School of Medicine, on May 20 and 21. The event, “From Rescue to Resilience,” took place at the UMKC Student Union.

Dean Betty Drees, M.D., gave the opening remarks and welcomed the participants to the conference that included nearly 20 different speakers and almost 30 exhibitors. Nick Comninellis, M.D., ’82, assistant professor of community and family medicine, is president and founder of InMed.

Exploring Medical Missions serves to inspire and equip health care professionals to help provide rescue and assistance to impoverished and disaster-stricken communities.