Helping Haitians claim health
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Helping Haitians claim health: Several times a year, a group of Emory faculty and students travel to Haiti as a part of Emory Medishare—a branch of the nonprofit Project Medishare, which advances community health and development in one of the poorest countries on earth.
This spring Emory Medishare’s efforts focused on developing an electronic medical record and a referral system to help patients receive the treatment they need. The system fills a void in Haiti, where previously no reliable method existed to track needed follow-up care, says Sameer Kapadia (right), a third-year Emory medical student who helped organize the trip.
With an iPad and a mobile printer, the Emory Medishare team was able to print forms that patients could take to subsequent visits for medical follow-up or surgical consultations. Local health care providers were able to tweak and adjust the forms to suit the needs of both patients and doctors alike—all done onsite, with no power supply.
“Schools like Emory are definitely playing a part in providing primary and surgical care when those services aren’t readily available, especially in rural areas,” Kapadia says. To create a permanent health care infrastructure for Haiti, however, he emphasized the need for sustainable solutions, including new clinic buildings to provide venues for care as well as incentives to retain medical professionals in Haiti. Emory Medishare will continue its volunteer efforts to reach those goals, he says. —Angela Ju
