…as NY doctors arrive to address health disparities
After recently signing a five-year medical partnership with the Health Ministry, Northwell Health has sent its first medical residents to Guyana in efforts to enhance care and train their physicians in tropical medicine.
Northwell’s Director of the Center for Global Health (CGH), Dr Eric Cioe Pena
The partnership will see these medical experts being rotated through Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). It is aimed at addressing the disparities in Guyana and New York by supporting a variety of services and broadening cross-cultural understanding with the communities of Little Guyana in Queens. This zone consists of the fifth-largest immigrant population in New York City.
Northwell’s Director of the Center for Global Health (CGH), Dr Eric Cioe Pena underscored that medical education is also about understanding patients, their culture, and value systems.
“Addressing health equity at home also means addressing the healthcare needs abroad…All of this comes with the trust and showing our surrounding communities, which have become increasingly diverse, that Northwell understands their cultural needs and what’s important to them. This partnership is a win-win by strengthening Guyana’s health system and secondly, strengthening Northwell’s relationship with the people of Guyana and Little Guyana.”
After an initial needs assessment in November, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony invited the CGH to return to Guyana to assess the interior regions of the country to provide a strategy to increase the welfare of the people living in the more remote areas of the country.
For patients that require care in Georgetown, travel to the capital city would require a two-day journey by ATV, boat, or in more dire cases, a small fixed-wing aircraft. The CGH looks to bolster Guyana’s secondary care system to enhance care in those regions.
“We’re looking at ways to leverage Northwell’s robust telemedicine platforms that allowed us to provide care during the pandemic. These systems can directly connect with advanced clinicians at GPHC to offer additional support. We’re also partnering with Northwell’s Center for Emergency Medical Services about pre-hospital transport in the jungle. When patients need to come to GPHC for complex services and imaging, they can transport them quickly and efficiently to tertiary-level care, quickly, efficiently and safely.”
Dr Cioe Peña further stated, “We also have to make sure we’re treating people in that secondary hospital – that generally consists of one emergency room bay and one operating room – and have those physicians practice at the highest level of their licence.”
The three week-visit also includes meetings with the President of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, to finalise the five-year strategy and discuss long-term housing needs for medical residents training in the country.
The Directed added, “When people hear about these initiatives, they think about a quick ‘get in and get out’ mission. Our partnership in Guyana, like our other partnerships in India and Ecuador, is about connection. Eventually, when a patient steps into a Northwell facility, there is a greater understanding of that individual and what’s important to them and their community. That’s what the core of Raise Health is about.”
Established in 2019, CGH partners with Northwell to develop new programmes in its core sites – Ecuador, Guyana, and India – and supports existing programmes in their affiliate sites in the Dominican Republic, Kenya, and Uganda. Providers engage in global health activities to help positively impact the health of communities abroad while equipping Northwell providers with skills that inform practice and support patient-centred care globally and locally.
