Jerry Umanos, Chicago pediatrician and formerly with Lawndale Community Church’s Health Center, has been serving at the CURE Hospital in Afghanistan since 2005. His role? Caring for ill Afghan children and training Afghan physicians to do likewise. On Thursday morning, two days ago, an Afghan guard opened fire at the hospital gate killing three American physicians, including […]
Remember the Sochi Olympics? Just ten days ago were we not mesmerized by the twizzles of ice dancing? How quickly that artistry and spirit of sportsmanship has degenerated into a colossal confrontation between Russia, Europe and the United States as they spar over Ukraine. While this conflict presently exhibits some restraint, a crucial
Demise of the Internet is already on our horizon. Like the information technologies before it – think of AOL and 3.5 inch disks – what is today’s mainstream will one day be a distant dream. Next up is The Grid. Built with dedicated fiber optic cables delivering speeds 10,000 times faster than broadband, real-time
Iran is “an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world,” said President Jimmy Carter in 1977. Yet in 1979 Iran broiled over into a bitter revolution that killed over a million citizens. It also provoked the capture of 52 American hostages held at the United States embassy for 444
In October was privileged to present the INMED Cross-Cultural Healthcare Awards at the annual Cross-Cultural Healthcare Symposium. The point of these awards is to recognize the heroes among us who both model and teach this virtue of service. The INMED Cross-Cultural Leadership Award recognizes one who has made significant leadership contributions to bridging
My heroes: Wendy & Greg Nyhus. I joined them in 2010 at Baptist Med Center in northern Ghana, where they coordinated the host of international volunteers and established a chicken farm to support the orphanage, both by providing food to eat and eggs to sell. Before they ever met, Greg was the business
It is human nature to step up to a challenge. What challenge will you choose? It is also human nature to defend. Whom will you defend? Most all of us in healthcare have dreamed of doing something bold. Why don’t we follow through? Here’s the reasons I hear most often: “I don’t know
Like any number of us who oversee organizations, businesses or institutions, I grapple constantly with dreams and demands that far exceed my capacity to fulfill or to manage. And like many of my colleagues, I find some reassurance in regularly remembering just what is my role as CEO. In one phrase, the INMED
Well-meaning people continually inquire about the terminology associated with global health. Their inquiry is not just hair-splitting. Terminology may be subtlety different, and yet the meanings conveyed be profoundly divergent. And so consider these terms: global health, international health, international public health, and international medicine. In common usage, global health and international health
In 1989 I arrived in Luanda, the capital city of Angola, to begin making good on my commitment to assist the churches in interior city of Huambo as they launched a healthcare project. Those were wild days of civil war: roads littered with landmines, random military attacks on nationals and foreigners alike, wide-spread hunger,