A Trip to India

BY MICHAEL DAUM, MDI had the wonderful privilege of visiting three different cities in India for 16 days during my third year of residency. My original impression of India was, "Wow." This country could not be any more different from what I am used to.I am just a small-town boy from southern Indiana, but my medical training has given me the opportunity to visit poverty-stricken areas and witness different medical practices in Honduras, Guatemala, and Haiti. But India was just different. Name anything. From the obvious — language, food, population density, climate, dress, and religion — to the not-so obvious — cleanliness, body language, hospitality, hospitals, patient acuity, and where health care priority fits into government.India is roughly one-third the size of the United States, but it has roughly four times more people. It is home to 17.5 percent of the world's population, and has 53 cities with more than a million people (the United States has 10).I went to three southern India cities: Bangalore (also called Bengaluru), Chennai, and Madurai. Each city had its own character. Bangalore was the first city I visited. George Washington University made my trip possible, and the hospital with which it partners is BGS Global Hospital. Dr. Samir Mohammad was the program director. I helped administer oral boards to residents the first two days and lectured the next two days. Fortunately, I had prepared six different hour-long lectures prior to arrival and man...
Source: Going Global - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs