Past Missions

Mission Update- Haiti Recon

Participants:

Ann Leber, Phd
Kenya Numan, MD
Mark Roberts
Andrea Usher, MD
Paula

With Help From Stepping Together and Doctor's Tee Time, a team went down to Haiti in April to assess the situation and pave the way for more missions.  We saw over 50 female patients, and our therapist provided counseling and therapy to children in the rehabilitation ward. We found that there is a lot of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder affecting the health care providers as well as the patients. Medicine in Action provided the funding for us to give free care to all of the patients that we saw at Haiti Community Hospital. We are concerned that the hospital will not survive since there are  very few paying patients, so the decision was made to support the  hospital for now. The Haitian people are a warm, resilient, and  gracious people. Our security, lodging and transportation was arranged  by DTT, we were well taken care of throughout our visit. There is great need for rebuilding infrastructure.  The roads are bad, there is often no running water or electricity.  We are planning another recon mission  in July 2010 to assess the best use of our time to help the people of Haiti.  We appreciate your continued support in this endeavor.

April 2010 Mission to Tanzania

Participants:

Debbie Chong, MD
Kelly Collins, MD
Jenny Keen, MD
Frank Major, MD
Brian O’Gara, Med Student, BUSM
Mary-Jo O’Sullivan, MD
Sara Pentlicky, MD
Steve Vanasco, MD
Isabella Venter, Volunteer

British Medical Students

Jennifer Capps
Caroline Charlesworth
Tamara Hold
Laura Moncreiffe
Roisin Porteous
Emily Stinton

We had a productive trip to Tanzania, seeing 168 patients in clinic, as well as performing 8 surgeries, including 5 major cases and 3 minor cases. We would especially like to thank Williams Ultrasound for lending us the Sono-site ultrasound machine, as it was very helpful to our patients. With this ultrasound we were able evaluate pelvic masses more specifically and to differentiate and assess ovarian tumors. We were also able to perform some obstetric ultrasounds.

We performed many ultrasounds, including ultrasounds on about 40% of our GYN patients. The Ultrasounds were also very helpful to us for our surgical evaluations. In a few instances, we had patients who were having miscarriages and the use of the ultrasound machine was invaluable for them. The ultrasound machine also helped us evaluate pelvic masses such as fibroids, ovarian cysts as well as evaluate pregnancies and determine gestational age of fetuses. In one instance, we were able to see twins that were both breech near term and we were therefore able to advise the mother to go to the local hospital, Bugando, for further evaluation for delivery. Our patients really appreciated the increase in quality of the care they received because of the ultrasound.

We also had the privilege of working with six British Medical Students from Manchester, England who had been in Tanzania for six weeks. In their own words, “We have learnt so much during our time here, from treating malaria and typhoid to being involved in gynaecological surgery with a visiting team of American doctors. But we have also learnt so much about the problems facing health care in Tanzania; the need for safe and affordable health care, patient education, and public health improvements. Nyakato Health Centre has begun to tackle these, and will continue to do so as it develops into a hospital.”

February 2010 Mission to Jamaica

Participants:

Debbie Chong, MD
Ambereen Sleemi, MD
Rabiya Suleman, MD
Rick Paskowitz MD
Ann Leber, PhD
Ritu Metzger, MD
Andrea Green, MD
Frank Major MD
Pablo Nelson
Patricia Foo, Sugar Scholar
Mary Jo O’Sullivan MD

Our mission to Jamaica was a successful one. Our diverse team was comprised of volunteers from all over the US: Northern and Southern California, Colorado, Virginia, Florida, Kansas, New York. We saw 158 patients in the clinic and performed 14 surgeries. For the first part of the week, we were based in Kingston and our home base was the Chong residence and the Immaculate Conception hostel. Each day, the clinic-based team, traveling with medicines and medical supplies, set up mobile clinics in different areas of the city: Whitfield town, Ferry District, Myrrhville. At each site, a community organizer would have lists of patients who were waiting to see us; often people would be waiting for our arrival. In addition to performing PAP smears, we treated a wide variety of gynecologic and primary care issues, including diabetes, hypertension, asthma and common orthopedic problems. Patient information was entered into a computer database as a means of establishing follow up. During the clinics, we had time to do some much needed patient education on healthy eating and weight loss. In the middle of the week, the entire team traveled to countryside to do clinics in the rural communities of Santa Cruz and Braes River. We held clinics amidst beautiful settings of sugarcane fields and lush green mountains. Everywhere we went, the patients were appreciative and welcomed our care.

November 2009 Mission to Jamaica

Participants:

Karolynn Echols, MD 
Sharon Steele, MD
Andrea Usher, MD
Shireen Heidari, MD
Chimene Brown, MD
Frank Major, MD
Mary Jo O'Sullivan,MD
Lise Rehwaldt, MD
Julie Beck, MD
Kelley Bullard, MD
Swati Shah,MD
Nicole Hlava, MD
Mureen Shaw, NP
Georgia Bromfield
Isabella Becker-Nguyen, RN
James Aikins, MD
Charletta Ayers, MD

Our November mission was the largest yet! We saw 628 adult patients, 193 children, and performed 20 surgeries. We have also expanded our time and effort to build a pediatric team and to cultivate our education sessions, which were very successful with our female patients. The women have responded very well to our educational sessions and seem hungry for more accurate health information. We were also able to bring two physicians specializing in gynecological  oncology as well as a general surgeon along on this mission.  The cancer specialists will be able to help treat patients with gynecological cancers, especially cervix cancer. This will allow us to expand our cervix cancer screening program to include treatment.  We will be able to help women with highly treatable cancers to recover, instead of losing their health or their lives. We can also begin to look into starting a breast cancer screening program and treatment options. Our patient education program encourages women to get screening done regularly. We have so far screened over 500 women for cervix cancer.  Including a general surgeon in the mission has meant that we can offer our patients a broad range of much needed services, including abdominal hernia repairs.  With more options available for surgical procedures, more patients can be helped with long term solutions.

An important part of our missions to Jamaica has become our work in the Port Maria Clinic.  This  portion of the program has also become more demanding as we have organized daily clinics during our missions.

September 2009 Mission to Tanzania

Participants:

Our September mission to Tanzania was a great success. We saw over 200 patients and performed 12 gynecologic surgeries. The mission was only 5 days long for most of us, as we then embarked on our fundraising climb to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, raising about $35,000 for Medicine in Action. We were lucky to have Dr. Jenny Keen from the UK, who joined MIA for the first time on this mission. She was able to stay in Mwanza and continue to see new patients as well as take care of our surgical patients in the hospital while the rest of the volunteers were on the climb. Dr. Keen is an internist with a specialty in women’s health and also substance abuse. We are thrilled that Dr. Keen plans to continue her work with MIA in Tanzania.

April / May 2009

Participants:

Debbie Chong, MD
Elizabeth Micks, MD
Steve Vanasco, DO
Elaine Waetjen, MD
Mweya Waetjen

University of Toledo 4th year medical students:
Sunil Arora
Andrew Assenmacher
Loyal Coshway
Shamik Trivedi
Ashton Shafton

Oxford Medical Students:
Tom Massey
Andrea Waldecker

This was our third successful mission to Tanzania.  We performed seven GYN surgeries and saw approximately 100 patients in clinic.  Many of our patients had not seen a doctor in several years or sometimes never, and were grateful for our help.  Sadly, we diagnosed two young women with advanced cervix cancer.  We also saw teenaged boy with osteosarcoma, a cancer in the bone of his leg.  With good access to medical care, these cancers could be curable if found at an earlier stage.   
During the first week we were joined by a team of fourth year medical students from University of Toledo.  They helped the team with organizing the clinics, triaging the patients, help in the operating theatre and with assisting in surgeries.  Their help in taking care of our patients was invaluable.  We were also joined by two medical students from Oxford Medical School during both weeks in the clinic.  Their help was critical in taking care of our clinic patients.  MIA would like to thank all the medical students for their help.

February 2009

Participants:

Debbie Chong, MD
Jesse Dominguez, MD
Frank Long, MD
Mary-Jo O'Sullivan, MD
Sara Pentlicky, MD
Rick Paskowitz, MD
Mark Roberts
Ira Sites, MD
Ambereen Sleemi, MD

This was our seventh mission to Jamaica, and our first mission of 2009. The trip was approximately one week long and we saw 219 Adult patients, 34 kids, did 119 pap smears, and 5 surgeries.  While members of the mission were seeing patients in the inner city clinics in Kingston, the prime minister of Jamaica, the honorable Bruce Golding, who was visiting his constituents there, stopped by to thank our volunteers for their work improving health care access on the island.  We continued our outreach in rural St. Mary on this trip as well as continued to provide our services in Kingston.

November 2008

Shellonda Anderson, New Jersey
Susie Aspinwall, NP, Atlanta, GA
Lorraine Bailey, RN, New Jersey
Colleen Burke, NP, Atlanta, GA
Debbie Chong MD,Oakland, CA
Karolynn Echols MD, Philadelphia, PA
Jerry Hemenway MD, Bridgeport, CT
Ann Leber, Sacramento, CA
Chimene Liburd MD, Baltimore, Maryland
Mary-Jo O'Sullivan MD, Miami, FL
Lise Rehwaldt MD, New York
Sharon Steele MD, Atlanta, GA
Nicola Thompson RN, New Jersey
Steve Vanasco DO, Orlando, FL

This was our sixth mission to Jamaica and the largest one yet. For the first time, Medicine in Action had a pediatric team. We were able to see a total of 788 patients in our various clinics. During the first week we traveled to various inner city clinics in Kingston and during the second week the team traveled to rural St. Mary saw patients in the public health clinics.We were hosted by the Chung family of St. Mary. MIA volunteers emphasize patient education. At least half of the patients that were seen were given education on at least one of the following topics: healthy diet, exercise,self breast exams. Some of our volunteers also held group health educationclasses in patient waiting areas. Our GYN team continued to perform muchneeded surgeries at St. Joseph's Hospital.

We would like to acknowledge the American Friends of Jamaica who provided us with a $2500 grant to help us with this mission. Their contribution allowed us to take care of many more patients and improve on the services we offered them.

September 2008

Participants:

Deborah Chong MD
Elaine Chong
Davan Chung
Sabrina Hussain, MD
Clyde Jacob, MD
Ahaz Jotham, MD
Monica Simmons, MD
Ambereen Sleemi, MD

This was our second successful trip to Tanzania. We returned to Mwanza and continued our work with IHP. We saw over 100 patients in clinic and performed eight gynecologic surgeries. We continued our health education program with Dr. Hussain speaking at one of the local mosques. Elaine and Davan helped Paula Lofstrom (of IHP) with fundraising for the hospital by making napkins and tablecloths out of Masai fabrics which Paula sells in her store. They also created some O.R. drapes. In addition, we participated in training an O.R. technician named Maria providing a means of employment for her so she may provide for her family.

May 2008

Participants:

Deborah Chong, MD LA, CA/Jamaica
Kenya Nu'man, MD, San Leandro, CA
Lise Rehwaldt, MD NY, NY
Mark Roberts
Steve Vanasco, MD Orlando, FL
Elaine Waetjen, MD Davis, CA

This was our first official mission to Mwanza, Tanzania. We collaborated with International Health Partners-Tanzania in Nyakato and were able to see approximately 135 patients in clinic and perform nine gynecologic surgeries. HIV and other STDs were diagnosed and sadly, were common. Dr. Nu'man held a women's health educational evening at one of the local mosques. This was very well attended and very successful. The goal of MIA is to continue to have a long term relationship with IHP-TZ and continue to provide gynecologic and other medical services to the people of Tanzania.

February 2008

Participants:

Karolynn Echols, MD Harlem, NY
Wayne McCreath, MD Miami, FL/Mo Bay Jamaica
Ambreen Sleemi, MD NY, NY
Lise Rehwaldt, MD NY, NY
Mark Roberts NY, NY

Local Jamaican Anesthesiology Team:

Dr. Delano Barrett
Dr. Cleon Davis
Dr. Ann Jackson-Gibson
Dr. Jason Toppin

Our 5th mission was a short but successful. Drs. Rehwaldt, Echols, Sleemi,McCreath and surgical technician Mark Roberts enlisted some wonderfulJamaican anesthesiologists from Kingston Public Hospital, led by Dr. Gibsonwho volunteered their time over the weekend so that we were able to complete8 major surgeries successfully. Again with the gracious hospitality ofElaine Chong and the help of Sister Grace Yap from the FranciscanMinistries, we were able to see 35 patients and perform 22 pap smears insome of the outlying clinics of Kingston.

November 2007

Participants:

Deborah Chong MD
Karolynn Echols MD
Sara Friedman MD, Sacramento, CA
Christine Hall Esq, Sacramento, CA
Lahaina Hall MD, New Jersey
Christine Kim MD, Sacramento, CA
Ann Leber, Sacramento, CA
Wayne McCreath MD, Miami, FL/Montego Bay, Jamaica
Suhila Noureldin, MD New York/Sudan
Lise Rehwaldt, MD New York

During this mission, we expanded our pap smear screening program in the rural areas of St. Mary. We were able to see 298 patients in clinic and perform 257 pap smears. We also added an education component to our mission. We educated women on basic health issues including self-breast exams, safe sex practices, healthy diet and exercise. We also continued providing surgical services at St. Joseph's hospital performing 8 major gynecological procedures.

February/March 2007

Participants:

Ray Cheung, MD Seattle, WA
Deborah Chong, MD, LA, CA/Kingston, Jamaica
Dr. Lindsey Dawson, MD Sacramento, CA
Karolynn Echols, MD Harlem, NY
Dr. Wayne McCreath, MD Miami, FL/Montego Bay, Jamaica
Lesley Meister, MD, Seattle, WA
Lise Rehwaldt, MD New York, NY
Elaine Waetjen, M.D. Davis, CA

Pap smear screening for cervical cancer prevention was initiated with this mission. We were able to perform approximately 80 pap smears in an outreach screening program. Most of our patients were in the parish of St. Mary where access to gynecologic care is limited. We were able to send those patients with abnormal results to the Jamaica Cancer society for further evaluation. We also performed 14 benign gynecologic surgeries at St. Joseph's hospital.

During this mission our first annual meeting took place and the official board for MIA was formed:

Deborah Chong, President and Treasurer
Karolynn Echols, Vice President
Lise Rewaldt, Secretary.

November 2006

Participants:

Bhoomi Brahmbhatt, MD Sacramento, CA
Deborah Chong, MD Los Angeles, CA/ Kingston, Jamaica
Carolyn Cook, RN Sacramento, CA
Stacy Judkins, Vacaville CA
Hong Li, MD Davis, CA
Meredith Williams, MD Ann Arbor Michigan
Shagufta Yasmeen, MD Sacramento, CA

During this medical mission we saw over 400 patients in various inner city clinics in Kingston, Jamaica. Some of the clinics are "make-shift" and include donated church halls or a person's home that were converted into a clinic for the day. Examples of the clinics include Whitfield Town, Trench Town(former home to Bob Marley), Stony Hill and Myrrh Villa. The clinics are organized by Sister Grace Yap. Our team is mobile, transporting supplies and medications each day from one site to another. We also performed 7 benign gynecologic surgeries at St. Joseph's hospital.

December 2005

Participants:

Ray Cheung, MD Seattle, WA
Deborah Chong, MD Los Angeles, CA/ Kingston, Jamaica
Karolynn Echols, MD Harlem, NY
Okey Ibeanu, MD Nigeria
Sara Koehler, MD Sacramento, CA
Lesley Meister, MD Seattle, WA
Lise Rehwaldt, MD New York, NY
Lisa Rolon, MD New York, NY

With the help of Sister Grace Yap OSF, of the Franciscan Ministries, our first mission was a success. We saw over 600 patients in various inner city clinics in Kingston, Jamaica. We treated a variety of diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, infections and gynecological illnesses. We performed 12 successful benign gynecological surgeries at St. Joseph's Hospital. This trip initiated the birth of Medicine in Action.