July 28, 2004
Contact:
Mara l. Kiffin, Assistant Director
Office of Public Affairs
(954) 262-5350
Scott Colton, Director of Education Communications
College of Osteopathic Medicine
(954) 262-5147
FORT LAUDERDALE, FL- The College of Osteopathic Medicine at Nova Southeastern University has an international medical mission program, which already includes annual excursions to Guatemala and Jamaica, and the College is about to add to its impressive outreach legacy by coordinating a comprehensive medical mission to Peru in the spring of 2005.
Preparations for next year's Peru mission were officially launched on April 1, 2004, when a nine-member contingent featuring faculty and students from NSU-COM and the College of Allied Health and Nursing Physician Assistant Program traveled to Central America to conduct an exploratory nine-day search of the region.
"Our primary goal was to introduce our program to the various health officials in Peru and educate them about what osteopathic medicine is all about," said Lauritz "Larry" Jensen, D.A., who serves as the college's director of preclinical education. "We also hoped they would be willing to accept licensed D.O.s and physician assistants as legitimate health care providers, which I'm happy to report is exactly what happened."
After making a preliminary stop in Lima to meet with the minister of health, the team journeyed to Arequipa to meet with physicians at a local clinic and discuss the possibility of establishing a symbiotic relationship. "It worked out extremely well because they allowed us to observe during our first day so we could get acquainted with their system," Dr. Jensen explained. "We were then split into teams of two and sent to different dispensaries around the city. In the evenings, the students were also invited to go to the main health care facility in Arequipa to work through the night with emergency patients, under the supervision of a clinic physician."
Although providing hands-on treatment to patients was not a primary goal of this fact-finding mission, news of NSU-COM's presence quickly spread throughout the neighboring communities that bordered the main clinic in Arequipa. "The clinic was suddenly overwhelmed with patients, so we were asked to assist with the overflow," Dr. Jensen said. "We pitched right in, but always under the direction of the clinic's physicians."
Because of the obvious expertise exhibited by the NSU health care cadre, Dr. Jensen and his cohorts were soon invited to assist the clinic's physician staff by performing comprehensive physicals at nearby schools. "Because there are so many children and not enough physician resources to conduct all the examinations, we were more than happy to help them out of their bind," said Dr. Jensen of the enriching experience. "We set up stations in the schools, and Camille Bentley and Michael Funk, PA-C soon uncovered a number of serious cardiac problems, such as heart murmurs, that otherwise would have gone undiagnosed for some time. Arequipa is a major Chagas' disease zone, with 1-in-500 reduviid bug vectors being positive-an extremely high number. As a result, Chagas' disease produces millions of cardiac abnormalities throughout Latin America yearly."
During their stay in Peru, Dr. Jensen and the other participants also visited a consortium of physicians based at the Colegio Medico del Peru and met with medical faculty at the Universidad Católica de Santa María. "We spent quite a bit of time talking to the medical faculty members at Universidad Católica, and we were surprised to learn that many of them already had some knowledge and understanding about D.O.s," Dr. Jensen said. "In fact, they asked us to bring down our OMT tables when we come back next year so we can teach them the techniques."
The nine-member contingent included:
- Camille Bentley, D.O. - Medical Mission Director
- Parham Eftekhari - M-2 student
- Luz Escalante - Volunteer
- Pam Escalante - Physician Assistant student
- Michael Funk, PA-C - Assistant Professor of Physician Assistant Studies
- Lauritz "Larry" Jensen, D.A. - Director of Preclinical Education
- Jose Llach - M-2 student
- Nicole Reis - P.A.student
- Leah Saporito - P.A. student
