UB/Bosnia health care partnership announced at White House ceremony

By LOIS BAKER
News Services Editor

UB personnel, along with personnel from the Buffalo General Hospital System and the city of Buffalo, were guests of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Among those representing UB were John P. Naughton, vice president for clinical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and Stephen C. Dunnett, vice provost for international education and director of the English Language Institute.

The partnership is being funded by a $2 million grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in cooperation with the American International Health Alliance.

Buffalo General has had an informal relationship with Tuzla Clinical Center for two years, through the efforts of Jacob Bergsland, a cardiothoracic surgeon and UB associate professor of surgery. Bergsland went to Bosnia to volunteer at the Tuzla center in 1994.

He initiated an exchange of medical personnel between Buffalo General and Tuzla at that time, and raised more than $1.5 million in supplies and equipment for Bosnia through International Medical Relief of Western New York, a philanthropic organization he heads.

The mission of the new formal partnership is to help improve health care in Bosnia through educational programs, including classes in medical English, and the exchange of clinical personnel. The two-year project will address several priorities:

· Health-services management, including financial and quality management, information systems and strategic planning

· Nursing, including management and expanding the role of nurses in patient care

· Pediatrics, including reducing neonatal morbidity and mortality, establishing screening programs, improving orthopaedic surgery, and caring for refugee children

· Women's health, focusing on cervical cancer prevention

To support this effort, Bergsland asked John K. Fitzer, assistant director of UB's English Language Institute, to develop a medical English program to enable Bosnian health care personnel to re-establish professional contacts and to communicate effectively with medical personnel during the exchange.

Nearly 120 health care professionals are enrolled in the four-month program, which began in August at the Tuzla Clinical Center. The institute also is hosting a Bosnian instructor who will complete a teacher-training program at UB in November and return to Bosnia to teach English at the clinic. At least one additional Bosnian instructor is expected to complete the program.