DukeMed Alumni News
Summer 2008

Rebecca Stein, a medical student, and Kelly Pretorius, a nursing student, with a patient in Honduras.

The university-wide Duke Global Health Institute is tapping into a groundswell of interest in global health—among students, medical residents, faculty, clinicians, and administration. Duke’s medical campus is teeming with new initiatives in medical education and outreach in developing countries. For more information about these and other happenings visit the Duke Global Health Institute online at globalhealth.duke.edu.

Duke Honduras Initiative
to get Permanent Clinic

Every year for the past seven, Dennis Clements, MD, PhD, HS’73-’76, ‘86-’88, along with faculty and staff from the schools of medicine, nursing, and the environment, has taken a handful of medical and nursing students on a 10-day getaway to the mountains of Honduras.

They pack a variety of medicines and live out of a duffle bag, bedding down for the night in sleeping bags on a concrete floor. They start their day when the roosters rouse them at the cusp of dawn, treating the routine health problems of villagers who would otherwise have to walk a full day to the closest medical facility.

Their campsite clinic ends when the sun goes down. They have no access to electricity.
“The latrine is outside; the shower is the best you can do in the mountains whenever you can get water, and hopefully nobody is looking,” says Clements. Yet he and the students return to Duke with renewed energy, mindful of why they want a career in healthcare.

But the week long clinic, part of the “Exploring Medicine in Other Cultures” course at Duke, is only a stopgap measure to improve the health of the villagers. “When I take students down, we can treat small traumas and give three months worth of vitamins and check people’s blood pressure,” says Clements, “but so much of what we see is chronic illness. We can’t do a lot about that in 10 days.”

That will soon change. Clements, a DGHI faculty member, has been helping generate interest from local Honduran government agencies, mission groups, and officials at the hospital in La Esperanza to construct a rudimentary cinderblock building, staffed by a nurse, which would become a permanent clinic.

Last year the villagers petitioned the government for a building that would cost about $20,000 to build. Seed funds raised by students and faculty in previous years, coupled with donations from Rotary International, a commitment from the Duke chapter of Engineers Without Borders, and a $10,000 gift from the Duke Chapel congregation, has put the dream within reach.

Lucy Worth, director of development and administration at Duke Chapel, says the offering committee looks for projects that follow the theoretical framework of the Beatitudes. The donation was one of the Chapel congregation’s larger gifts. “We were quite taken with Dr. Clements’ proposal,” says Worth.

The proposed building will have a concrete floor, and windows with wood shutters, but no electricity. Engineers Without Borders will design a system for running water. Rotary clubs in Research Triangle Park and Chapel Hill and a partner club in Honduras have committed to raise substantial funds to provide equipment and supplies as well as some of the infrastructure for sanitation once the plans and equipment needs are finalized.

Linda S. Lee, PhD, associate director of the Duke Clinical Research Training Program, has been involved in the educational component of the class for many years.

“It is a poor country, but we spend time talking with and listening to patients. They feed us, and we visit their homes. We are part of their lives for a few days and we learn about what their lives are like,” she says. “To have people living in poor circumstances teach us is a really good experience. The immersion in another culture, and being totally removed from our own, gives us all a chance to reflect on our professions and our lives.”