Health Workforce History Made in Havana

Text & Photos By Gloria Giraldo & Conner Gorry

July 25, 2007 – Local and international health authorities, family, friends, colleagues, medical educators, ambassadors, and press packed Havana’s Karl Marx Theater on July 24th to witness history unfold as 2,188 Cuban- trained health professionals received their hard-fought degrees. The evening was historical for several reasons, but will likely go down in the annals for one: eight new doctors trained on full six-year scholarships at Cuba’s Latin American Medical School (ELAM) hail from the United States.

This is not the first graduation of US doctors from the ELAM – that distinction belongs to Dr Cedric Edwards originally of New Orleans and part of the school’s first graduation in 2005, now doing his residency at Montefiore Hospital in New York – but it is the largest. The eight students from California, New York, and Minnesota entered the ELAM pledging to work in underserved communities in the USA and now, as doctors, prepare to transform commitment into action. The Reverend Lucius Walker Jr., Director of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) which coordinates ELAM scholarships for US students, was on hand to commemorate the event (see photos below).

All told, 25 countries, including Cuba, were represented at the graduation, as new doctors throughout the western hemisphere and Africa, also trained at the ELAM, received their degrees. In total, 1,220 Cuban-trained doctors from Cuba, the USA, and the Global South, were honored at the Havana event. This represents only a fraction of the total number of Cuban-trained doctors graduating this summer: 2,470 Cuban doctors and 1,561 foreign doctors received degrees around the country.

The evening was historical for other reasons as well: The 646 For exclusive interviews with the US and other university-level allied health professionals present constituted graduates, see the Fall issue of our sister publication the largest graduating class of health professionals in four MEDICC Review, available October 1 at specialties in the history of Havana’s Higher Institute of www.medicc.org/mediccreview. Medical Sciences – which currently offers university-level degrees in 21 different allied health specialties, though only four were represented at this ceremony.. Added to this were 118 new dentists and 204 nurses, rounding out the graduation of Cuban-trained health workforce, destined to work at home and abroad.

©MEDICC, 2007 Health Workforce History Made in Havana

Havana, July 24, 2007: 25 countries with graduates

Argentina Cuba Mexico Belize Dominican Republic Nicaragua Bolivia Ecuador Nigeria Brazil Equatorial Guinea Panama Cape Verde El Salvador Paraguay Chile Guatemala Peru Colombia Guinea Bissau Uruguay Costa Rica Honduras USA Venezuela

204 New Cuban nurses graduated in the ceremony on July 24th

“These new nurses constitute only a small fraction of the total number of nurses in the country. We need to increase our efforts to attract more youth to this noble profession to respond to our needs.”

– Dr Jorge Gonzalez Perez Rector, Higher Institute of Medical Sciences, Havana

New nurses Irenia Acosta Padron & Iliannys Brown New nurses Lemaus Sarmiento Martinez Hernandez & Yenisley with their mom Hernandez Leon and dad respectively

©MEDICC, 2007 Health Workforce History Made in Havana

“For there to be total health, there needs to be oral health. But in many countries, poverty and marginalization impede 118 new dentists access to basic health graduated in services. In these places, oral health is unheard of…if Havana on there’s nothing to put in July 24th your mouth, it’s highly unlikely there will be health care for your mouth…”

– Dr Jorge Gonzalez Perez Rector, Higher Institute of Medical Sciences, Havana Number of dentists per population in Cuba: 9.5 per 10,000 population which means 1 dentist for every 1,049 patients.

Source: Annual Health Statistics Yearbook, 2006. National Health Statistics Bureau. Havana: 2007. New dentist Guido Romulo Wever

New dentist Juan Cedeño Mendez

University-Level Allied Health Sciences

• 646 Cuban graduates in the following areas: o Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation o Blood Bank/Haemotology o Clinical Laboratory o Diagnostic Imaging

©MEDICC, 2007 Health Workforce History Made in Havana Graduates from countries with a critical shortage of health care providers

• WHO estimates a global shortage of more than 4 million doctors, nurses, midwives and others. • 57 countries fall below a threshold of 2.02 to 2.54 health care professionals per 1000 population. – Source: The World Health Report 2006

Graduates from countries with a critical shortage of health care providers: Peru “We want to bring health care to impoverished rural communities and marginal urban communities. We’ve been trained in Cuba’s primary care-oriented model of healthcare delivery, emphasizing prevention and promotion, so we have the tools to make it happen.”

Johnny E. Carrillo Prada, (left) student leader who is helping organize ELAM graduates and students to bring health care services to impoverished communities in his native Peru. Dr Carrillo is from the northern Peru province of Lambayaque, in the district of Illimo; his home town has a population of about 6000.

Countries graduating over 90 new doctors from the ELAM: Paraguay, Guatemala, Nigeria, Honduras, & El Salvador

New Paraguayan doctors from left to right: New Guatemalan doctors from left to right: Carlos M. Diaz, F. Alfredo Velasquez Melver G. Chox Lopez, Cesar F. Tilian Cobex, & Gloria R. Tellez Maria A. Cabrera Brizuela & Wilson D. Loarca Lux

Dr David Herrera, 13th son in a family of 16 children from the province of Antioquia, Colombia:

“This has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience…At 16 I would have never dreamed of becoming a doctor. Today, I plan to go where few doctors want to go, to some of Colombia’s most remote regions, where Colombia’s minorities suffer for lack of health services among many other socioeconomic needs… that’s where I want to work.”

Nigeria graduated 92 new doctors Cuba´s Ambassador to Nigeria Elio Olivia told the press earlier this week in Abuja that the Nigerian students have been studying medicine on the island for the last seven years.

Families came from far and wide to see their children make the official passage from student to doctor.

Mother of new Dr Wendy Perez New Dr Simisola Oyewumi from came from the Mosquitia, Honduras Lagos, Nigeria is all smiles. to see her daughter graduate.

Dr Valbuena, Dr Blanco and Dr Buitrago from Colombia

©MEDICC, 2007 Health Workforce History Made in Havana Eight US students graduated on July 24th in Havana “Many doctors and hospitals in the US have shown special interest in working with the students that come from the ELAM program because they have specialist training in primary and preventive care, a global perspective about health that Cuba teaches that is harder to find in the US, and they are fully bilingual – worth its weight in gold in the United States health care system.”

- Ellen Bernstein, IFCO/Pastors for Peace Dr Melissa Barber Bronx, NY Dr Toussaint Reynolds Massapequa, NY Dr Jose De Leon Oakland, CA Dr Wing Wu St. Paul, MN Dr Carmen Landau Oakland, CA Dr Teresa Thomas Bronx, NY Dr Evelyn Erickson NY, NY Dr Kenya Bingham Alameda, CA (from left)

Rev. Lucius Walker, Jr., Director of IFCO/Pastors for Peace spoke passionately to the new doctors, bringing special congratulations from 28 members of the US Congress.

Students interested in applying to attend the ELAM are invited to visit the IFCO website: Interested in applying? Click here!

For more information: Latin American Medical School MEDICC Review Training Physicians for Global Health Studying Medicine in Cuba: First Impressions