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Dr. Paul Farmer offers Haiti diagnosis
From Caribbean
to Boston
to Boston
Dr. Paul Farmer, the global health campaigner who has worked in Haiti for 27 years, is suggesting some tough medicine for Haiti that could improve the patient in the long-run.
Farmer spoke to an overflow crowd yesterday at Harvard Medical School, where he is chairman of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, and to colleagues from the Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he runs the Global Health Equity division. And of course Farmer's other Boston role is at Partners in Health, which he cofounded in 1987 with the current director, Ophelia Dahl, and other colleagues.
I wrote an account of Farmer's talk in the Globe today. I also checked in with Partners in Health on their extraordinary fund-raising since the quake, when the non-profit global health organization became a principal organizer of emergency medical aid. Partners in Health says it has raised more than $52 million since the quake -- more than twice its budget for its massive, on-going Haiti project for the entire year.
Partners in Health will face some daunting challenges as it weighs so many competing demands and priorities for restoring longer-term health services in Haiti -- and, as Farmer said yesterday, also trying to get at some of the chronic ills in Haiti as well as the acute ailments from the quake.
Farmer's entire Harvard talk is available via webcast here.
One point worth noting. Farmer himself cautioned against over-emphasizing the work of individual doctors and nurses in Haiti.
"How many times must we learn that the image of the heroic doctor working alone is a romantic image from another era, that what we need are teams, and above all, systems to deliver services effectively," he said. There had been much heroism in Haiti in the last month by doctors, nurses and citizens, "but all of them have needed a system within which to work."
Farmer spoke to an overflow crowd yesterday at Harvard Medical School, where he is chairman of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, and to colleagues from the Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he runs the Global Health Equity division. And of course Farmer's other Boston role is at Partners in Health, which he cofounded in 1987 with the current director, Ophelia Dahl, and other colleagues.
I wrote an account of Farmer's talk in the Globe today. I also checked in with Partners in Health on their extraordinary fund-raising since the quake, when the non-profit global health organization became a principal organizer of emergency medical aid. Partners in Health says it has raised more than $52 million since the quake -- more than twice its budget for its massive, on-going Haiti project for the entire year.
Partners in Health will face some daunting challenges as it weighs so many competing demands and priorities for restoring longer-term health services in Haiti -- and, as Farmer said yesterday, also trying to get at some of the chronic ills in Haiti as well as the acute ailments from the quake.
Farmer's entire Harvard talk is available via webcast here.
One point worth noting. Farmer himself cautioned against over-emphasizing the work of individual doctors and nurses in Haiti.
"How many times must we learn that the image of the heroic doctor working alone is a romantic image from another era, that what we need are teams, and above all, systems to deliver services effectively," he said. There had been much heroism in Haiti in the last month by doctors, nurses and citizens, "but all of them have needed a system within which to work."
About this blog
Worldly Boston is James F. Smith's report on people from our community who are making an impact in the world, and on people from abroad doing noteworthy things in Greater Boston. We live in the most global of communities. Worldly Boston helps share those stories.
About James F. Smith
Jim Smith came home to his native Boston in 2002 to become the Boston Globe's foreign editor after spending 22 years abroad. He was previously based in Buenos Aires and Mexico City for the LA Times, and in Johannesburg, Tokyo and The Hague for the AP. In 2007 he became the Globe's national political editor, coordinating presidential campaign coverage. He is a Yale graduate, and has an MBA. He is married to Maxine Hart and has two sons, Matthew and Daniel.
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