Health Briefs
Health Briefs
Fighting Lifestyle Ailments
In the days of the U.S. Trust Territory administration, there was no opportunity for Micronesian doctors to gain specialized post-graduate training. When the Washington-funded Pacific Basin Medical Officers Training Program closed its doors in 1996 after training 70 Palauan, Micronesian, Marshallese and American Samoa medical officers, the only opportunity for the MO’s to gain advanced training was at the Fiji School of Medicine.
Now there’s a training program in the Micronesian sub-region. Through collaboration of the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii, the University of Auckland Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, the Palau Community College and the Palau Ministry of Health, a new post-graduate training initiative is starting this month in Koror in a particularly critical health specialty.
- ADVERTISEMENT -
The three-year, $1.5 million grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to the UH Medical School’s Area Health Education Center (AHEC) that is funding a partner AHEC in Palau.
The pattern throughout the Micronesian area is that the weakest doctors were put into public health. But, says Dr. Gregory Dever, director of Palau’s AHEC and head of the Bureau of Clinical Services at the Ministry of Health, “if we believe in primary health care, we have to put our best doctors in this field to combat life-style diseases.” The problem, he says, is that up to now there has been no specialized training for Micronesian doctors in family practice – an area of medicine essential to targeting the alarming increase in such lifestyle problems as strokes, heart attacks, hypertension and diabetes.
The new three-year program aims to provide island doctors with a diploma in family practice by “marrying the best elements of the U.S. post-graduate training system with the best of the British system,” says Dever. The British system is strong on academics, the American in hands-on training, says Dever, who directed the Pohnpei-based medical officers school until it closed six years ago.
 |
|
|
The grant will expand Palau Community College’s growing health sciences program, which is already operating nursing training and a U.S. Centers for Disease Control-funded regional emergency medical health training program, said Palau Community College President Patrick Tellei.
On completion of the one-year diploma program, doctors will be
eligible to complete their master’s degrees at either Auckland University or the Fiji School of Medicine, and
will also be able to use distance education courses offered by the New Zealand institution.
—Giff Johnson
Israel Focuses on
Health Training
An Israeli doctor wrapped up three months in Chuuk in January assisting with health services and helping train hospital staff as part of ongoing Israeli technical assistance in the region. Dr. Amnon Tsvieli, a family physician with 30 years of medical experience in rural health and emergency rescue, traveled to many of the more isolated surrounding islands in Chuuk State. “Although Israel is not a rich state that can aid
by funding heavy investments, we are rich with experience in solving some of the problems encountered here,” Tsvieli says.
Tsvieli’s mission to Chuuk follows a visit last May by the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s special medical and humanitarian advisor, who was in the Federated States of Micronesia, as well as Palau and the Marshall Islands, to assess further areas of cooperation. In January 2001, Israel sent two specialists to Micronesia to conduct clinics for hundreds of islanders suffering from eye disease. The previous July, two other Israeli doctors conducted a training program in anesthesiology and emergency room procedures in Chuuk, Yap and Pohnpei.
“We are putting a lot of effort into expanding our relations in the Pacific by way of continuous diplomatic contacts, as well as through our aid program, particularly in the area of health,” Canberra-based Israeli Ambassador Gabby Levy says.
“Israel has generated a lot of support in the Pacific region and has a vast interest in maintaining relations with these countries.”
Micronesia has traditionally supported Israel at the United Nations. This year, many more Pacific Island nations, including the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Nauru either supported Israel or abstained in voting against Israel in several annual UN General Assembly resolutions.
—Mark Schulman
Crisis Center Promotes Abstinence Message
More than 200 Saipan residents joined recently inaugurated Gov. Juan N. Babauta and Lt. Gov. Diego T. Benavente in a January march against abortion practices in the Northern Marianas. The rally was also held to officially open the Crisis Pregnancy Center and Hotline, which was established to provide assistance and hope to women and teenagers who are unprepared for motherhood.
Program coordinator Lulu Malone said the plight of the unborn will not go unheard in the CNMI as individuals, churches, and organizations unite to support the cause of protecting their lives. She said the march was also one way of telling pregnant women that assistance is immediately available in the community through the 287-HELP hotline and the crisis center. Hotline counselors are trained to listen and give advice to women who are in need of assistance. These counselors may also channel the caller to a more appropriate resource person or office.
The hotline will present sexual abstinence as a positive lifestyle for singles. It is also intended to provide opportunity for healing and restoration to those who have been hurt
by abortion.
—Aldwin R. Fajardo
Photo: Giff Johnson
