OUR WORK
Global Healing has coordinated numerous capacity building projects in Roatán from oral health to trauma medicine to neonatology. We train Honduran physicians, care for patients, and move medical equipment and supplies to the public hospital. Recently, we began working with the University of California, San Francisco, University of California, Berkeley and Medic Mobile to expand high quality medical care beyond the hospital walls.
The Clinic
At the heart of all our activities on the island is the Roatán Volunteer Pediatric Clinic, housed at the public hospital. Each day, 25-30 children visit the Clinic as outpatients to receive world class medical care. The Clinic is now staffed with a full-time Honduran pediatrician, Dra. Karla Cerritos, who is assisted by rotating American pediatric attendings and residents. Additionally, a student intern from the HEAL program helps with patient registration and triage.
Mission Statement
The Roatán Volunteer Pediatric Clinic empowers the public health system in the Bay Islands of Honduras to improve the quality of, access to and continuity of pediatric care. Global Healing connects Honduran and American medical professionals to learn from one another to become better practitioners using modern technologies that address locally relevant challenges.
The Pediatric Fellowship
Before Dra Cerritos started at the clinic in 2011, Global Healing hosted a pediatric fellowship program to allow Honduran attendings the chance to gain real world experience about pediatric care. The following are our past five RVPC Fellows:
Dr. Raymond Cherington
2005
Dr. Charles Welcome
2006-2007
Dra. Lidia Prado
2008
Dr. Mario Rivera
2009
Dra. Sara Sadrzadeh
2010
Rotational Program
Pediatric attendings and third-year pediatric residents who are fluent in Spanish spend 4 weeks or longer at the Clinic. They share their pediatric expertise with their Honduran counterparts and get to hone their clinical skills and learn about tropical medicine. Visiting physicians also participate in ward rounds with local physicians and help Dra. Cerritos examine newborn infants. Over the past several years, American specialists in emergency medicine, neonatology, pediatric and trauma surgery have visited the hospital on a short-term basis to deliver intensive training conferences to the island medical community.