Progress at the H.O.P.E. Center Allyson Westling
I was fortunate to spend two months with the GROW team interning at the H.O.P.E. Center this summer. We were able to advance the partnership between the Center and GlobeMed at Northwestern, evaluate existing outreach programs, and conduct community-mapping initiatives. My own research focus was on maternal health and nutrition. I met with many pregnant women to assess their current nutritional knowledge, beliefs, and practices in collaboration with the H.O.P.E. Center’s effort to expand its already successful childhood nutrition program to a new patient population. The H.O.P.E. Center is an exceptional community health clinic, complete with effective outreach programs that target childhood malnutrition and adolescent sexual and reproductive health concerns, and a talented staff. I left Ghana with a much wider understanding of global health work in action, a deeper appreciation for the incredible people who make the Center what it is today, and the commitment and excitement to further advance our partnership with the Center as we continue to support these important outreach programs this academic year.
Eye Health Care in India: A Chapter Member Highlight Esha Khurana
This past summer, I stayed with Dr. Markanday Ahuja, one of the two opthalmalogists working at the renowned Sri Baba Mast Nath Eye Hospital in India. Dr. Markanday sees and diagnoses about 120 patients in an hour, which, if you do the math, means that he typically greets his patients and jots down a diagnosis and issues a prognosis and writes a prescription for medicine all within 30 seconds. Many of the patients, it seems, suffer from injuries to the eye while cutting crops or from livestock. The injuries then go untreated for years, and the corneal or lenticular abrasions are exacerbated by dust particulates in the air, harsh UV light, and age. Patients tend to see the doctor only when the eye condition develops into an acute problem. The vast majority of patients wear no form of eye wear, and if they do, they rarely know the power of their lenses. The real issue, it seems, is lack of education and persisting attitudes about eye medicine. For example, there is definitely a stigma against wearing glasses. In the eyes of a villager, if you’re wearing glasses, you suggest to others that you are not cut out for tough physical labor and that you intend to occupy your time by dawdling with books. Most of the children patients were terrified of the doctor – believing that if they did not behave well, the doctor would brandish a large needle and use it at his leisure. Even for the adults, going to the doctor is seen as a punishment, a full day’s endeavor which pulls the villagers away from daily work. Part of the problem, I believe, is the lack of a true patient-doctor relationship on account of the dearth of doctors and complete surplus of patients. Dr. Markanday does not choose to see his patients for 30 seconds; he has no choice. He either sees them equally for 30 seconds or he will not see certain patients at all. It’s clearer than 20/20 vision (pardon the lame joke) that Dr. Markanday’s hospital provides invaluable services to its patients, and honestly, he’s an inspiration to aspiring physicians like me. He practices medicine out of compassion for fellow man, not out of a desire for money or a thirst for academic glory. There’s only raw medicine, raw knowledge, and a lot of heart.