Marin Independent Journal (Marin, CA)
January 29, 2004 Thursday
Marin doctors to go on mission to Iraq Physicians
part of effort to rebuild the country's ailing medical
system
BYLINE: Jennifer Upshaw, IJ reporter
BODY:
http://media.mnginteractive.com
Dr. Thomas Cromwell, an anesthesiologist, is one
of three Marin doctors who will travel to Iraq to
participate in a conference to help improve the
country's deteriorating medical system. Three Marin
physicians will embark next month on a humanitarian
mission to help their Iraqi counterparts overhaul
an ailing medical system.
The doctors, plastic surgeon Bernard "Bud"
Alpert of Ross, anesthesiologist Thomas Cromwell
of Belvedere, and urologist Ira Sharlip of Kentfield,
all work for California Pacific Medical Center in
San Francisco.
Alpert, who visited Baghdad on a monthlong mission
last spring, recruited the two and a fourth Bay
Area physician, an Iraqi native, to participate
next month in a four-day conference involving about
30 American physicians.
The men are not traveling to Baghdad to practice
clinical medicine.
The aim is to rebuild Iraqi's medical system by
helping physicians organize a professional society
similar to the American Medical Association, create
specialty societies in areas of expertise, and establish
a network between the two nations that would open
educational doors for Iraqi physicians.
"The techniques and drugs and advances made
have been just been light years ahead," Cromwell
said. "They don't enjoy the things we enjoy.
... They are way, way back, not a stone age, but
certainly far behind."
Alpert's trip last April thrust him into Iraqi
medicine, which underscored the need to organize
and open doors for the medical community - a talented
and educated group that was cut off from modern
advances, Alpert said.
"There's been a lot of deterioration,"
he said. "They've been stuck in time, because
of the totalitarian society and because of the sanctions."
After returning from Iraq, he arranged for six
Iraqi physicians to visit the United States, touring
medical centers and giving lectures in America.
Next month's four-day conference beginning Feb.
12 is a first step, he said, pointing out that although
the job of overhauling the system is huge, "you
have to begin somewhere."
Sharlip, who hopes a physicians' exchange between
doctors can be established, plans to carry a copy
of the American Urological Association's bylaws,
and hopes to offer free online access to the group's
educational resources to a handful of foreign physicians.
What will come from the conference will depend
in part on what the Iraqi doctors want, he said.
"We're going to have to wait and see how many
Iraqi doctors come to the meeting, how many urologists
there are, and what they are interested in,"
he said.
Cromwell, who has been to Haiti on a humanitarian
mission, views this trip as a fact-finding endeavor.
"I think that it will give us an amazing opportunity
to see what their needs are, develop some friendships
and stimulate enduring dialogues."
Advances such as the use of virtually non-invasive
surgery and the administration of anesthesia medications,
to name a few, could make the difference in treating
the nation's sick, the doctors noted. Modern treatment
of burn injuries - a problem particularly prevalent
among children carrying gasoline to fill up the
tanks of cars and taxis or stepping on unexploded
ordnance - is another area of interest.
The two Marin physicians who have never visited
the war-torn nation said they weighed the potential
dangers of the mission. Cromwell said he's also
given thought to people's perception of the trip.
"I'm afraid people will say this is a bunch
of cowboys going into a war zone or say, 'well,
there are troops over there and a bunch of doctors
are going for four days,' " he said. "I
think the concern for all of us, from the standpoint
of physicians, is to upgrade their skills. ... I
think our interest is altruistic. We would like
to find out what they need and where they exactly
are at the current time - we have been totally isolated
from that country."
The reward comes from giving back and, for Sharlip,
the hope of adding a page in history.
"What we do in medicine is independent of
politics - it's person to person, people to people.
Here's an opportunity for us to contribute to the
health of a large population of people in one fell
swoop," he said.
"I think the U.S. effort in Iraq has the potential
to create a new paradigm," he added. "I
don't mean to say it will happen, but it could happen,
so this gives me an opportunity to participate in
a historical project - to make my little contribution
to the world."
Contact Jennifer Upshaw via e-mail at
jupshaw@marinij.com
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LOAD-DATE: January 29, 2004