Pritzker News
SPREADING Pritzker ABROAD By Greg Borzo
When Olufunmilayo Olopade, MD, FACP, and associate dean of the University of Chicago Medical Center’s new Global Health Initiative, surveyed the faculty to gauge the university’s presence around the world, she was surprised to learn that faculty members were already active in more than 100 different countries.
“That’s why I can say with stem the brain drain that has practically devastated confidence that we’ll rely on some developing countries,” said Olopade, who is our existing strengths to build from Nigeria. our Global Health Initiative,” In terms of education, the Initiative will expose Olopade said at the launch students to global health issues, provide training and this past fall. service learning opportunities for students and faculty Another survey showed and develop local capacity for sustained educational that more than 60 percent development in countries with limited resources. of the incoming housestaff Olufunmilayo Olopade, MD, a native of Nigeria, “Global health is already institutionalized in the and medical students say stands with her mother, Dorcas Falusi. medical curriculum,” Olopade said, “because the they want a global health experience, she said. “Increasingly, reforms being rolled out added global health to the list of tracks students are deciding where to enroll and work based on their students can pursue in medical school.” anticipated exposure to global health training and issues.” The Initiative has formed or is forming partnerships in Olopade, also professor of medicine and human genetics Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria and director of the Cancer Risk Clinic, believes that alumni, too, and South Africa. will get involved. “We are extremely interested in exploring “Our biggest success so far has been raising awareness and ways alumni could contribute and participate,” she said. “Small excitement about global health within the university community donations from alumni would have tremendous impact on and building a strong foundation,” Olopade said. improving opportunities for trainees and faculty, expanding Peter Singer, MD, director of the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre programs and supporting international field experiences. for Global Health at the University of Toronto and keynote Additionally, they would provide important training opportuspeaker at the launch, described what motivated him to work in nities for students and researchers from partner institutions in global health: “It was the day I learned that the life expectancy limited resource settings.” of people in Canada and the United States is 80 years and rising, The Initiative’s goal is to build sustainable solutions to comwhile the life expectancy of people in many developing countries plex health challenges through research, education and clinical is 40 years and falling.” programs in partnerships with communities around the world. Infectious diseases are rampant in developing countries, From a clinical approach, the program will deliver care to the he said. Malaria, tuberculosis and HIV kill 4.3 million a year; most vulnerable populations abroad as well as in the United States pneumonia and diarrhea kill 2 million and 1.7 million children through links with the Medical Center’s Urban Health Initiative. a year, respectively. It also will provide clinical training and support through exchange Despite these high numbers, even more deaths are caused by programs and international collaborations. “This is not missionary chronic non-communicable diseases in developing countries, work,” Olopade said. “We want to contribute to building up the Singer said. Nevertheless, a fraction of 1 percent of the world’s clinical capacity of health care workers in other countries.” development funding is aimed at these diseases, he added. For research, the Global Health Initiative will partner “Our Global Health Initiative is an extension of the uniwith institutions worldwide to find sustainable solutions to versity’s commitment to work on the biggest problems of our development and health challenges and to research the ethical, time,” said Donald Levy, PhD, vice president of the university’s social and legal implications of international research. “We’ll help Research and National Laboratories. 42 University of Chicago Medicine on the Midway
Getting to Know the South Side: Pritzker Day of Service By Allison Horton First-year medical students got a chance to learn more about the South Side neighborhoods served by the Medical Center through participating in the second annual “Pritzker Day of Service.” “The idea is to introduce first-year medical students to this community and also to give some manpower to ongoing community service projects in South Chicago,” said Laura Blinkhorn, a secondyear medical student involved in the Pritzker Community Service Fellowship, a student organization that sponsored the event last fall and is devoted to developing physician leaders. She helped direct other medical students last year as they prepared a community garden for the winter. Blinkhorn was one of more than 20 Pritzker School of Medicine students who harvested crops, such as peppers and tomatoes, and turned over the garden for the South Chicago Art Center, 3217 E. 91st St., which provides free in-school and after-school art programs to eight schools in the Washington Park and Englewood neighborhoods. Community residents take care of the garden and receive the crops, which help an area where the average annual household income of $12,000 is well below the poverty line. Any excess produce is donated to local food pantries.
Sarah Ward, executive director of the art center, said the garden was once a parking lot for area steel mills and a gas station. “I wanted the kids to feel better about themselves,” she said. “To be able to see a butterfly land on a flower and draw it and enjoy the outdoors that’s not concrete and broken glass,” she said. Other Pritzker students volunteered at the Gary Comer Youth Center, 7200 S. Ingleside Ave., which provides after-school programs such as health and wellness classes, academic tutoring and college mentoring to youth in the Grand Crossing neighborhood. The center also is home to the South Shore Drill Team, a nearly 30-year-old organization that trains young people to perform flag, rifle and dance routines and takes them around the world to show their stuff. More than 50 medical students cleaned fitness equipment, worked in a rooftop garden and helped kids make Halloween crafts. Gabrielle Zeigler, a 16-year-old Hyde Park Academy student who has been attending the center for three years, said she enjoyed doing Halloween crafts with the medical students. “It was fun,” she said. “We got a chance to meet new people and work with them. If we needed extra help with what we were doing, we had the extra help.”
Laura Blinkhorn, a second-year Pritzker student, and Andrew Schram, a first-year student, show off their harvested vegetables. Photo by David Christopher
Rebecca Levine, a second-year medical student and a fellowship board member, said volunteering helps the Medical Center grow roots in the community. “There is a significant degree of passion at our school for service and for giving back, and we are really focusing on these long-term partnerships in the South Side neighborhoods,” she said.
Peer-to-Peer Mentoring at Pritzker By Susan Chandler The Pritzker School of Medicine has always provided counseling to students during their third year, a stressful watershed when they move out of the classroom and into hospitals. Some students may be seeing seriously ill and dying people for the first time. On top of that, third-years must decide what area of medicine to specialize in. That adds up to a lot of pressure. Much of the career guidance students receive comes from Pritzker faculty members through formal advising societies. Two Pritzker students in their fourth year decided some grass-roots input was needed. In August, Josephine Kim and Gautam Malhotra approached Shalini Reddy, MD, associate dean for student programs and professional development, with an idea. Why not ask fourth-year students to act as mentors to third-years and post their profiles so the third-years could see which
students shared their same career or personal interests? Reddy gave the go-ahead and so far, more than half of the fourth-year class has signed up to be mentors. “It is a fantastic addition,” said Reddy. “Peer mentoring provides perspective. If you’re talking to someone who has been through what you’re going through, you take it to heart. I think there’s a need for connectedness because medical students tend to feel they’re experiencing everything by themselves. I want them to know they have each other.” The issues that concern third-years may run the gamut from “When can I find time to exercise?” and “What should I eat?” to “Someone just died. How do I handle it?” Reddy said. Kim says the idea for peer mentoring came to her at the end of her third year when she was looking for someone to talk
to about choosing obstetrics/gynecology as a specialty. A friend suggested she talk to another student who turned out to be “unbelievably helpful,” Kim said. Prospective mentors were asked to fill out a survey listing their choice of field, organization memberships, research work and hobbies. That information is being posted on a website where third-years can make their own choice about whom to contact. There’s a risk, of course, that fourthyear mentors may find themselves busier than they expect and not be as diligent as hoped about responding to inquiries. There’s also the chance that the program will fade away after Kim and Malhotra move on. But Kim says they won’t let that happen. “We haven’t laid out the nitty gritty yet, but we’ll make sure it gets passed on.”
Spring/Summer 2010 43