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The Work of Riley Hospital and IU School of Medicine Reaches Beyond the US Border
08/22/2008
As an extension of the Calnali Health Education Outreach Program, Jorge Islas, Secretary of Health, Hidalgo Mexico, will be visiting Indianapolis August 21-22 to tour Riley Hospital for Children, the Clarian/IU Simulation Lab and Wishard Hospital as well as gain in depth knowledge from senior staff on various initiatives involving Mexico currently underway at Riley and the Indiana University School of Medicine, including an effort to make Mexico a strategic partner with Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis and the Binational Cross-Cultural Health Enhancement Center, a Signature Center grant.
The Calnali Health Education Outreach Program, established in 1998, is a partnership between IUSM and the Universidad Autonoma de Hidalgo and provides basic health care and health education in Central Mexico. Riley students and residents have been participating in exchanges to Hospital de Niņos, the children's hospital in Hidalgo, and beginning September 8, five pediatric residents from Universidad Autonoma de Hidalgo will begin one-month clinical rotations at Riley.
This partnership is important because it is estimated that as many as 20 Hispanic families relocate to Indianapolis each week and projections show the numbers continuing to rise over the next 10-15 years. Since 1980, Indiana's Hispanic population has grown by 400 percent.
"Partnerships such as these garner mutual trust and respect among institutions as well as help educate leaders, train students and residents and foster clinical and scientific collaborations," said Sarah M. Stelzner, MD, assistant clinical professor of pediatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine. "This partnership and clinical exchange is key to encouraging multicultural understanding."
Partnerships like this are common for Riley and IUSM. Since 1989, the IUSM and Moi University School of Medicine in Kenya have worked in partnership to develop leaders in health care for both the United States and Africa.
Also, in April 2008, Riley and the highly regarded Capital Institute of Pediatrics of Beijing, China, formalized a longtime relationship by officially becoming "international sister hospitals." This designation provides an opportunity for Capital Institute physicians to receive further training in their disciplines, observe Riley's medical staff and take back new techniques and medical knowledge to China while Riley physicians will lecture and conduct research at the Institute.
Riley physicians and IUSM faculty members volunteer their time in locations around the world to provide general and specialty healthcare, including surgical services, to children in countries including Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Guatemala, Jordan, Lithuania, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines and Vietnam.