©MEDICC, 2007
Health Workforce History Made in Havana
Health Workforce History Made in Havana
Text & Photos By Gloria Giraldo & Conner Gorry
July 25, 2007 – Local and
international health authorities,
family, friends, colleagues, medical
educators, ambassadors, and
press packed Havana’s Karl Marx
Theater on July 24th to witness
history unfold as 2,188 Cubantrained
health professionals
received their hard-fought degrees.
The evening was historical for
several reasons, but will likely go
down in the annals for one: eight
new doctors trained on full six-year
scholarships at Cuba’s Latin
American Medical School (ELAM)
hail from the United States.
This is not the first graduation of
US doctors from the ELAM – that
distinction belongs to Dr Cedric
Edwards originally of New Orleans
and part of the school’s first
graduation in 2005, now doing his
residency at Montefiore Hospital in
New York – but it is the largest. The
eight students from California, New
York, and Minnesota entered the
ELAM pledging to work in
underserved communities in the USA and now, as doctors, prepare to transform commitment into action. The
Reverend Lucius Walker Jr., Director of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) which
coordinates ELAM scholarships for US students, was on hand to commemorate the event
(see photos below).
All told, 25 countries, including Cuba, were represented at the graduation, as new doctors throughout the western
hemisphere and Africa, also trained at the ELAM, received their degrees. In total, 1,220 Cuban-trained doctors
from Cuba, the USA, and the Global South, were honored at the Havana event. This represents only a fraction of
the total number of Cuban-trained doctors graduating this summer: 2,470 Cuban doctors and 1,561 foreign
doctors received degrees around the country.
The evening was historical for other reasons as well: The 646
university-level allied health professionals present constituted
the largest graduating class of health professionals in four
specialties in the history of Havana’s Higher Institute of
Medical Sciences – which currently offers university-level
degrees in
21 different allied health specialties, though only four were represented at this ceremony.. Added to this were 118
new dentists and 204 nurses, rounding out the graduation of Cuban-trained health workforce, destined to work at
home and abroad.
For exclusive interviews with the US and other
graduates, see the Fall issue of our sister publication
MEDICC Review, available October 1 at
www.medicc.org/mediccreview.
©MEDICC, 2007
Health Workforce History Made in Havana
Havana, July 24, 2007: 25 countries with graduates
Argentina
Belize
Bolivia
Brazil
Cape Verde
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Equatorial Guinea
El Salvador
Guatemala
Guinea Bissau
Honduras
Mexico
Nicaragua
Nigeria
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Uruguay
USA
Venezuela
204 New Cuban
nurses graduated
in the ceremony
on July 24th
“These new nurses constitute only a small fraction of the total
number of nurses in the country. We need to increase our efforts
to attract more youth to this noble profession to respond to our
needs.”
– Dr Jorge Gonzalez Perez
Rector, Higher Institute of Medical Sciences, Havana
New nurses Lemaus Sarmiento
Hernandez & Yenisley
Hernandez Leon
New nurses
Irenia Acosta
Padron &
Iliannys Brown
Martinez
with their mom
and dad
respectively
©MEDICC, 2007
Health Workforce History Made in Havana
118 new dentists
graduated in
Havana on
July 24th
“For there to be total
health, there needs to be
oral health. But in many
countries, poverty and
marginalization impede
access to basic health
services. In these places,
oral health is unheard of…if
there’s nothing to put in
your mouth, it’s highly
unlikely there will be health
care for your mouth…”
– Dr Jorge Gonzalez Perez
Rector, Higher Institute of Medical
Sciences, Havana
Number of dentists per
population in Cuba:
9.5 per 10,000 population
which means 1 dentist for
every 1,049 patients.
Source: Annual Health Statistics
Yearbook, 2006. National Health
Statistics Bureau. Havana: 2007.
New dentist Juan Cedeño Mendez
New dentist
Guido Romulo Wever
University-Level Allied Health Sciences
• 646 Cuban graduates in the
following areas:
o Physical Therapy &
Rehabilitation
o Blood Bank/Haemotology
o Clinical Laboratory
o Diagnostic Imaging
©MEDICC, 2007
Health Workforce History Made in Havana
Graduates from countries with a critical shortage
of health care providers
• WHO estimates a global shortage of more
than 4 million doctors, nurses, midwives
and others.
• 57 countries fall below a threshold of 2.02
to 2.54 health care professionals per 1000
population.
– Source: The World Health Report 2006
Graduates from countries with a critical shortage
of health care providers: Peru
“We want to bring health care to impoverished rural
communities and marginal urban communities. We’ve been
trained in Cuba’s primary care-oriented model of healthcare
delivery, emphasizing prevention and promotion, so we
have the tools to make it happen.”
Johnny E. Carrillo Prada, (left) student leader who is helping
organize ELAM graduates and students to bring health care services
to impoverished communities in his native Peru. Dr Carrillo is from
the northern Peru province of Lambayaque, in the district of Illimo;
his home town has a population of about 6000.
Countries graduating over 90 new doctors from the ELAM:
Paraguay, Guatemala, Nigeria, Honduras, & El Salvador
New Paraguayan doctors from left to right:
Carlos M. Diaz, F. Alfredo Velasquez
& Gloria R. Tellez
New Guatemalan doctors from left to right:
Melver G. Chox Lopez, Cesar F. Tilian Cobex,
Maria A. Cabrera Brizuela & Wilson D. Loarca Lux
©MEDICC, 2007
Health Workforce History Made in Havana
Dr David Herrera, 13th son in a family of 16 children from the
province of Antioquia, Colombia:
“This has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience…At 16 I would
have never dreamed of becoming a doctor. Today, I plan to go
where few doctors want to go, to some of Colombia’s most
remote regions, where Colombia’s minorities suffer for lack of
health services among many other socioeconomic needs…
that’s where I want to work.”
Nigeria graduated 92 new doctors
Cuba´s Ambassador to Nigeria Elio Olivia told the
press earlier this week in Abuja that the Nigerian
students have been studying medicine on the island
for the last seven years.
©MEDICC, 2007
Health Workforce History Made in Havana
Families came from far and wide to see their children make
the official passage from student to doctor.
Mother of new Dr Wendy Perez
came from the Mosquitia, Honduras
to see her daughter graduate.
New Dr Simisola Oyewumi from
Lagos, Nigeria is all smiles.
Dr Valbuena, Dr Blanco and Dr Buitrago from Colombia
©MEDICC, 2007
Health Workforce History Made in Havana
Eight US students graduated on July 24th in Havana
Dr Melissa Barber
Dr Toussaint Reynolds
Dr Jose De Leon
Dr Wing Wu
Dr Carmen Landau
Dr Teresa Thomas
Dr Evelyn Erickson
Dr Kenya Bingham
(from left)
Bronx, NY
Massapequa, NY
Oakland, CA
St. Paul, MN
Oakland, CA
Bronx, NY
NY, NY
Alameda, CA
“Many doctors and hospitals in the US
have shown special interest in working
with the students that come from the
ELAM program because they have
specialist training in primary and
preventive care, a global
perspective about health that Cuba
teaches that is harder to find in the
US, and they are fully bilingual – worth
its weight in gold in the United States
health care system.”
- Ellen Bernstein, IFCO/Pastors for Peace
Rev. Lucius Walker, Jr., Director of IFCO/Pastors for
Peace spoke passionately to the new doctors, bringing
special congratulations from 28 members of the US
Congress.
Students interested in applying to attend the ELAM are
invited to visit the IFCO website:
Interested in applying? Click here!
For more information:
Latin American Medical School
MEDICC Review Training Physicians for Global Health
Studying Medicine in Cuba: First Impressions
Cuentan ellos que cuando arribaron a Cuba no conocían nada sobre los Cinco cubanos acusados injustamente de terroristas por EE.UU., pero que hoy están de su lado y unen sus voces al reclamo de libertad. Marjorie Contreras Rivas, comenta sobre el hecho de que oftalmólogos cubanos operaran de cataratas, recientemente en Bolivia, al asesino del Che y comenta: "Es una gran enseñanza, porque le tendieron la mano al asesino de un gran héroe".Más de 700 jóvenes latinoamericanos, venidos desde los más recónditos parajes, viven en casa de familias cienfuegueras, toman lo bueno de esta sociedad, perfectible como cualquier otra, y se hacen médicos, vinculando la teoría con la práctica desde el mismo día que pisaron las aulas. El grupo que esta vez se reunió en el ICAP, pertenece al Área I de Salud, y sus miembros estuvieron acompañados por quienes acá los representan.
