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Mentors Welcome: MEDICC Launches Program for US Students & Grads of Latin American Medical School
Havana, December 22--A mentorship program for over 100 US students and graduates of Havana's Latin American Medical School (ELAM) was announced by MEDICC's US Director Diane Appelbaum and Dr. Richard Quint. The two presented the program at the international conference "Medical Education for the 21st Century: Teaching for Health Equity" held at the Hotel Nacional in the Cuban capital.  US medical school faculty, physicians and other health professionals are joining MEDICC for the program, noted Ms. Appelbaum. "We're committed to guaranteeing these new MDs a successful transition into medical practice in underserved communities where they have pledged to serve, by providing career guidance and other support." The US ELAM students, who study medicine for six years in Cuba, are overwhelmingly African-American, Latino, and Asian American and come from inner-city and rural areas.
"These intelligent, dedicated, courageous, and bilingual students have significant potential to make a difference in the lives of people in the communities where they will work and for contributing to health equity in the United States," said Dr. Quint, a retired professor of pediatrics at the University of California San Francisco Medical School. But he noted challenges lay ahead, since the Cuban curriculum differs in many ways from traditional US medical studies, blending population health with clinical medicine. The students at ELAM are also learning medicine in a context very distinct from that of the United States and may have little experience with the organization of the US healthcare "system".  The MEDICC Mentorship Program is designed to prepare students and graduates for re-entry and residency training and to further enable them to enter socially accountable medical practice. According to Ms. Appelbaum, the program will:
Establish a national network of Mentors for ELAM students and graduates throughout the United States; Provide mentoring through the six years of their medical studies and during the postgraduate phase when the new MDs are seeking residency placements; Assist students in finding summer employment, arranging externships and clinical observerships during vacations; Provide guidance to students in their preparation for the various steps of the US Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE), recommending preparatory courses where appropriate; Counsel students on choice of residency programs and career development; Help students network with physicians in their chosen areas of training; Provide reliable information on the trends and changes in US healthcare workforce policies and regulations; Provide background on the US healthcare system and its history; Follow the graduates' professional career choices, their successes and setbacks. Generate feedback mechanisms to improve the program itself.
MEDICC mentors are US physicians who have experience in medical education, and who are licensed and board certified in the following areas: family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, preventive medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, surgery, and public health. US ELAM Grads to Date
Through 2008, 17 students have graduated from ELAM, with one currently in a combined internal and social medicine residency program, and two others applying for the 2009 residency match. While the rest continue to prepare for the US Medical Licensing Examinations (USMLE, or "Boards"), several already have passed at least one step of this three-step examination. In an effort to defray the costs of preparatory courses and the exams themselves, MEDICC awarded Mnisi Fellowships to 11 students in 2007 and to 16 in 2008. USA: Physicians Needed
The United States will soon be facing an overall shortage of physicians. The lack of family doctors has been severe for many years and continues to worsen--only 42% of residency slots in family medicine are being filled, the lowest figure in the last 12 years. This shortage of family medicine physicians is compounded by significant disparities in both access to healthcare for racial and ethnic minorities and their representation in the US physician workforce. While 25% of the US population consists of African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans, members of these groups account for less than 10% of the US physician workforce. In spite of efforts in recent years to increase the number and diversity of primary care physicians in urban and rural areas, federal spending has been cut to the main programs aimed at accomplishing these goals. What's more, minority and low-income students are carrying ever bigger debt burdens when they graduate, often higher than $200,000, according to a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine. "A big advantage ELAM students have is that they graduate debt-free, and thus free to follow their dreams," commented Dr. Quint following the MEDICC presentation. More on ELAM... Mentors Welcome
Founded in 1999, ELAM enrolls nearly 9000 students from 29 countries in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. The Cuban government has offered a total of 500 full scholarships to US minority and low-income students who want to study medicine but cannot afford to do so in the United States. The application process is open year-round. Those interested in becoming MEDICC Mentors, please contact Diane Appelbaum at dappelbaum@mediccglobal.org.
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