View from Stanford

A young medical student at Stanford University stood before the table of RZIM [Ravi Zacharias International Ministries] books and resources beaming. “We don’t see these things very often,” he said, clarifying, “Not books; there’s no shortage of books. I mean Christianity without the hostility.” He proceeded to describe students and friends who deride the possibility of possessing both faith and intellect, medical professors who actually apologize when the language of design inadvertently slips into lectures on the body, and the isolation that comes from trying to stand in the shadows of this increasingly antagonistic majority. When I inquired as to the availability of support from campus ministries or local churches, his response was equally dismal. “There are groups that speak to the emotionality of faith, but academically, there is no one.”

- from Jill Carattini's recent RZIM report from Stanford and Berkeley. How different are things here in Rochester, and what can we do to foster a more open forum in our own academic town square?

A thought experiment

Our perfectly designed US healthcare system

The interregnum between a presidential election and the inauguration is a time of feverish activity, in which the president elect and his staff decide who will help them govern and what they will try to do first. The press and pundits speculate breathlessly on who will be appointed and what they will do first. As I write this, for example, we have just learnt that the new administration’s secretary of health and human services is likely to be a respected former US senator, Tom Daschle. He has written a book about healthcare reform, which is likely to be his assignment when he starts in January.

I’ve been musing about the United States and how perfectly designed our current healthcare system is. Perfectly designed, of course, as every system is, to achieve exactly the results it gets, as quality improvement guru Don Berwick famously said. In its own way, it is really rather remarkable. Here’s a thought experiment to illustrate what I mean.

Click here to read Doug (graduate of Rochester's Family Medicine Program) Kamerow's thought-provoking article about health care disparities in this week's issue of the British Medical Journal.

Be present

Practice presence
Breathe in the squeaky cry of a too-thin infant
dirt blowing off the road in your eyes
the pain of having too little to give

Breathe out flaming bougainvillea
the sun fading behind the hill
magic of medicine on an infected hand

Breathe in poverty and pain and confusion
the ache of tip-toeing on another’s suffering
Breathe out fresh watermelon
Honduran coffee in the morning
a game of duck-duck-goose.

Breathe in the guilt of problems unanswered,
wasted time, a broken world
Breathe out a new friendship and a fresh coat of paint.

Practice presence –
learn to sit still, listen longer, absorb more than you
thought you could - or even wanted to.

Remember your gifts –
be the first one to smile when passing another
expand a few vitamins into hope for a village
try to turn chaos into a dance.
Learn to let go.

Be still. Be present.

Shoulder to Shoulder, Santa Lucia, Honduras

Martha C. Carlough, MD, MPH
U of Rochester Family Medicine (Class of ’92)

Trip to Honduras

URMC to provide help in Honduras

by Justina Wang. Democrat & Chronicle Staff writer

Next month, about a dozen University of Rochester Medical Center doctors, nurses and students will travel to Honduras to repair water filters, build cook stoves, hand out school supplies and talk with impoverished families. It's not pure medical work, but they believe their helping hands could do more for the health of people in developing countries than any stethoscope or needle.

"It's so easy to see there that if you don't have clean water and your child gets diarrhea three times a year, then the intervention is clean water, not medicines," said Dr. Douglas Stockman, director of the university's global and refugee health program. "Prevention is probably more important than curative care." Since 2003, Stockman and residency program director Dr. Steven Schultz have taken a medical brigade down to the village of San Jose, where there's no running water, electricity, hospitals or clinics.

The project is part of the national Shoulder to Shoulder effort to help the poor in Honduras, and URMC has committed to helping the village for at least 10 years. In the last two years, the First Unitarian Church of Rochester has also joined the project, raising more than $70,000 for the San Jose area and sending one or two parishioners with the URMC team.

During the twice-yearly, two-week trips, the group has installed 140 ventilated stoves, built 4,500 gallon water tanks, supplied 578 pieces of PVC pipe to bring water to 30 homes, put water filters in 20 homes, helped construct latrines, trained midwives, and handed out fluoride rinse for schoolchildren. In between the community work, half the doctors and residents also see patients and write prescriptions in a makeshift warehouse clinic, where students learn that medical issues aren't isolated from daily problems.

Children who drink infected water come in with worm and parasite infections. Poverty takes the form of malnutrition and stunted growth. Open fires in homes without stoves lead to serious burns, bronchitis and asthma. Adults who have had no medical attention in their lives come in with advanced cancers, untreated diabetes and high blood pressure, schizophrenia and psychoses that have never been diagnosed.

"It's sometimes very difficult to see the causalities and linkages," said Schultz. "Violence is a huge concern in Rochester, but is it a medical problem? Maybe violence is having an issue on the health of many members of the community, and maybe as a physician I should be looking at that, and not just concentrating on what I'm doing in the exam room."

First-year resident Donald McLaren, a 26-year-old from New York City and a son of Haitian immigrants, said this is exactly why he went to medical school. He wants to work with diverse populations and is preparing for his first trip to Honduras on Oct.18 — brushing up on his Spanish and picking out a tent and sleeping bag to keep out mosquitoes and scorpions when he sleeps on the floor of an open cinderblock school. "This is going to be a very interesting experience," he said. "I expect to be shocked, and I expect to do a lot for the community in Honduras."

Fall MD Breakfast

Our next Breakfast will be held on Saturday morning, October 18th, from 9-11 am at the Academy of Medicine, 1441 East Avenue. Christian counselor Charlie Coté will be speaking about “Coping with the Impact of Grief.” In addition to insights from his professional practice, Charlie has a deeply moving personal testimony to share. Please mark your calendars and RSVP using our Response page. Be sure to note location (click here for Directions to the Academy of Medicine).

Ravi and the Sheik

Ravi Zacharias was the 2008 Honorary Chairman of the National Day of Prayer. He told the following story, excerpted from his keynote address at The Cannon House in Washington, DC, on May 1, 2008:

Please forgive me if this illustration is a bit sensitive. I don’t say it with any ill intent. Three years ago, I was with the Archbishop of Canterbury. He’d taken five of us to the Middle East to talk to the leaders of all factions to bring together some kind of semblance of peace, some discussion. There were many of those appointments I chose not to go to because of our nation’s caution on whom to see and not to see.

But the last day, I saw one of the leaders of Hamas, one of the four founders. I went there for one reason; I had one question for him. He gave us a great meal, told us of eighteen years he’d served in prison, some of his children had been lost in suicide bombings, and this and that. And I had a question. I said, “Sheik, I may never see you again and forgive me if I’m asking you the wrong question. Please tell me, what do you think of suicide bombing and sending your children out like that?” I didn’t like his answer. I couldn’t say much. The room was full of smoke.

After he finished his answer, I said, “Sheik, you and I may never see each other again, so I want you to hear me. A little distance from here is a mountain upon which Abraham went 5,000 years ago to offer his son. You may say the son was one; I may say it’s another. Let’s not argue about that. He took his son up there. And as the axe was about to fall, God said, ‘Stop.’” I said, “Do you know what God said after that?” He shook his head. I said, “God said, ‘I myself will provide.’” He nodded his head. I said, “Very close to where you and I are sitting, Sheik, is a hill. Two thousand years ago, God kept that promise and brought his own Son and the axe did not stop this time. He sacrificed his own Son.”

I said, “Sheik, I just want you to hear this. Until you and I receive the Son God has provided, we’ll be offering our own sons and daughters on the battlefields of this world for many of the wrong reasons.”

It was quiet. We walked out and the Archbishop just put his arm around me. As I was about to get into the SUV, the Sheik came over and he just patted me on my face. He kissed me on both sides. He was a strong man; he pulled me to him. He said, “You’re a good man. I hope I will see you again someday.” That’s all he said.

Click here to read Ravi's entire address, which is well worth your time.

A Garden Bouquet

Susan Morehouse Releases New CD

At an Open House for family and supporters today, Susan will be introducing her new harp CD Harpsongs II - A Bouquet from My Mother's Garden.

The album is a 65-minute "bouquet" of 22 classical, Celtic, and spiritual pieces, several of which feature Nicole Ferguson on the flute.

If you would be interested in obtaining a copy, please visit Susan's website or contact her directly.