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For nearly 15 years, Fernet Renand Léandre, MD, has worked tirelessly to educate people in Haiti about how to reduce the spread of disease. This summer, thanks to the Smith Family Visiting Scholarship in Global Health Equity, he furthered his clinical and educational skills even more.
“I’m so grateful to have gotten this opportunity; countless people across Haiti will benefit from it,” said Léandre, director of the TB/STDs/HIV/AIDS Expansion Program in Haiti, who, along with Gilbert Biraro, MD, program doctor with Partners In Health (PIH) in Rwanda, was a Smith Family Visiting Scholar.
Now in its second year, the program exposed the two scholars to rounds and teaching conferences and gave them the opportunity to shadow interns and residents for three weeks. In addition, they attended a Global Health Effectiveness course, co-sponsored by the Global Health Delivery Project, Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School.
A highlight for Biraro, who works with PIH Rwanda at Kirehe District Hospital, was meeting people from all over the world. “It was a great opportunity to network with people who are struggling with some of the issues we’re dealing with, and we’re able to share ideas and concerns,” said Biraro, who often assists with developing and supervising PIH-Rwanda’s technical unit clinical programs through regular meetings and assistance in patient care.
Léandre, who works at Zanmi Lasante in Haiti and has spent time in Rwanda with PIH, echoed that sentiment. “I realized that we’re not alone, and we can collaborate and share our knowledge,” he said.
This exchange was possible with the support of Sandford and Ellan Smith, who brought the program to fruition last year with their physician, Marshall Wolf, MD, director of medical residency programs emeritus, and Division of Global Health Equity Chief Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, former Chief Jim Kim, MD, PhD, Joia Mukherjee, MD, MPH, and Joseph Rhatigan, MD, director of the Doris and Howard Hiatt Residency in Global Health Equity.
“We are so impressed by the dedication, expertise and intellect of these visiting doctors,” said Sandford Smith. “Improving patients’ care is their life’s mission. Our goal is to help them broaden their medical knowledge, while at the same time enabling them to share their extensive field experience with BWH residents and interns. It’s a unique exchange.”
He added that this year builds on the success of last year’s inaugural program. “My vision continues to be the same: If we could bring doctors from developing countries to BWH, they would return home with greater knowledge and share that with their communities and beyond. These are leaders who will help transform patient care, medical education and perhaps even health policy in their own countries.”
The Smiths’ gift supported all the costs of this unique program, and they made a bequest in their estate to ensure the program will continue into the future.