from the community, for the community

The idea to me sounds fantastic and I give the kudos to the Latin America School of Medicine. The philosophy of the medical school appears to be rooted in reaching the underserved within Cuba’s borders and poor communities abroad. From testimonies given by medical student, it appears many students from some of the poor communities are award comprehensive scholarships in exchange for a commitment to return and serve their community. The video made the statement: “The doctors are from the community working for the community.” This is a great example reaching out and training local community members with medical skills, people who already have personal vested interest in particular poor communities who know the unique culture, language, and people personally; medical training is the easy part, the latter cannot be taught in school.

I personally believe the testimony of the young medical doctor who was “required to serve” four months in a poor community and had the following to say: “ … it severely hurt my social life….it [the time spent] cured me of my desire to save the world,” is not a an opposing but a supporting argument. It seems to me the small trade of “a social life, ease and comfort” is a small price in exchange for a free/greatly discounted medical school education. Additionally, I believe the experience within rural and impoverished communities creates an impassioned response from the majority of medical doctors.

In rebuttal to a second argument made in the video, I believe was done sufficiently. Short clips from a Venezuelan protest and of Honduran medical doctors complaining of the presence of Cuban medical doctors taking away opportunity for native doctors was well refuted explaining the Cuban doctors work in rural and poor communities where the native physician’s are unwilling to practice. It would be interesting to know whether the Cuban doctors charge for their services and medicines.

In conclusion, I believe the Latin School of Medicine appears to be following a great philosophy and helping to build within their medical students a heart of gratitude and a heart of service to their local underserved communities and those abroad.