I have always dreamed about going on a medical trip abroad. It was one of those things that I added to my “Must Do In My Lifetime” list. It was right there along with go on an African safari and go skydiving. So how amazing would it be to travel to another country and immerse yourself in the “real” (non-tourist) communities while helping them address their health concerns? SO AMAZING!!!

This past January I spent the first week of my new year working in the Dominican Republic (DR) with Health Horizons International (HHI). We set up walk-in type clinics in three underserved communities of the Puerto Plata region of the DR and saw Dominican and Haitian patients all day. The clinics that we set up included a patient check-in area, a triage area, doctor’s consult stations and a pharmacy. It was similar to walk-in clinics in the U.S. except that we were in the village church/meetinghouse, we didn’t have computers and there were no insurance companies involved.

The majority of chief complaints were arthritic pain, viral illnesses, headaches and acid reflux; all things that we can safely address in a walk-in clinic. In the case where a patient needed specialty medical services they were referred to a local doctor that agreed to offer their services at a discounted rate which HHI had funds to cover.

In comparison to my first trip, I felt so much more confident in my clinical and diagnostic skills. It’s so mind-blowing to reflect back and see how far I’ve come after six months out of the classroom doing clinical rotations. It was also nice to see how much the newcomers enjoyed their first medical service trip and how dedicated they were to giving good healthcare. I was extremely proud of all of them.

HHI has also grown immensely in the past nine months since I’ve been to the DR. In addition to already training community health workers, they have established a medical record system and the Tufts students were creating a GIS map of Pancho Mateo, the largest community we serve. They continue to improve and evolve which makes them a great organization to work with.

It has been one of the best experiences seeing firsthand how the money the QU PA Program helped raise for HHI is being put to good use.

For more info about HHI and photos visit click here.
You can also check them out on Facebook.

--Ryan

Ryan graduated in 2005 from the University of Washington with an undergraduate degree in Biology. Subscribe to our feed for more posts from Ryan!