Author: Amanda

Virtually unknown in the United States, obstetric fistulae, or holes between either the rectum and vagina or the bladder and vagina, which develop after difficult childbirth, leave thousands of women in Africa incontinent. As a result, these women, many of whom are very young and very poor, are ostracized from their community. Since 2003, it has been the mission of the International Organization for Women and Development (IOWD) to bring volunteer surgeons and nurses to Africa to operate and care for these women. At the same time, the group trains the local surgeons in these surgical skills.

In 2003, Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital OR nurse Kathleen Scott, RN, traveled to Niger with the IOWD for the first time. “It’s something I always wanted to do,” says Scott. “And I just got hooked.” Since then, she has traveled with the IOWD to Niger and then Rwanda every year until 2010. “It’s a great group. The doctors come from all over the country,” says Scott. “The thing that’s special about this group is that they train the local doctors and nurses to do the work. You leave the groundwork behind.” Continue reading “BWFH experts help provide quality healthcare to women in Rwanda” →

“It’s the saddest thing in the world to hold a baby who has died,” said Anne CC Lee, MD, MPH, FAAP.  “But what is even worse and more unjust is holding a baby who has died, when it could have been prevented.”

Lee, who has worked in rural health clinics in Tibet, India, Africa and China, is now working to improve birth outcomes in places with few resources and weak health systems.

Read more about the work of Lee, a physician-researcher in the BWH Department of Pediatric-Newborn Medicine’s Clinical and Translational Research Program, and her team in BWH Clinical and Research News.

“It’s the saddest thing in the world to hold a baby who has died,” said Anne CC Lee, MD, MPH, FAAP.  “But what is even worse and more unjust is holding a baby who has died, when it could have been prevented.”

Lee, who has worked in rural health clinics in Tibet, India, Africa and China, is now working to improve birth outcomes in places with few resources and weak health systems.

Read more about the work of Lee, a physician-researcher in the BWH Department of Pediatric-Newborn Medicine’s Clinical and Translational Research Program, and her team in BWH Clinical and Research News.

As health care hubs like Boston continue to advance medical technologies and standards of care, rural communities can often be left behind. The Community Outreach and Patient Empowerment (COPE) Project combats some of these health care disparities through serving the Navajo Nation.

A partnership between the Indian Health Service, Partners In Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, COPE provides treatment as well prevention programs for people living within Navajo Nation. Originally launched in 2009, the program focuses on chronic disease prevention through access to healthier foods. BWH’s Dr. Sonya Shin, an associate physician in the Division of Global Health Equity and the Division of Infectious Diseases, directs the project. Continue reading “COPE Seeks to Improve Health of Families of Navajo Nation” →

The Global Health Delivery Project, a collaboration between BWH and Harvard University, has recently created an online community for health care professionals around the world to discuss Ebola treatment and containment. Started in late September, the “Ebola Response community” now has over 278 members from 65 different countries from over 240 organizations. There are several members from the most Ebola-afflicted countries, including Sierra Leone and Liberia, as well as countries that have successfully contained the disease, such as Nigeria and Senegal. Continue reading “Ebola Response Community on GHDP” →