Research
Haiti called out to the people of Alpert Medical School long before the earthquake of January 2010. And our connection will endure – must endure – far into the future. Members of the Brown community continue to work with our Haitian colleagues on both individual and system levels – providing clinical care, sharing perspectives and expertise, and helping to teach the next generation of health care professionals. As the work continues, we hope that the voices on this site will keep Haiti on our minds and in our hearts.
Alpert Medical School in Haiti
After the January 2010 earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Brown AMS faculty members completed multiple fact-finding and relationship-building trips to various Haitian medical facilities.
In September of 2010, former Brown University President Ruth J. Simmons committed to expanding and enhancing Brown’s partnerships and educational programs with institutions in Haiti, including an initiative help to address Haitian pediatric medical education.
Following this public commitment by President Simmons, Dean of Biology and Medicine, Dr. Edward Wing led a group of Brown medical educators on a visit to Haiti in October of 2010, where plans were developed to create the Medical Education and Leadership Development Project (MELD), a program to address Haitian medical students' need for more pediatric education and in-country pediatric rotations.
Medical Education and Leadership Development Project (MELD)
Alpert Medical School (AMS) has developed a relationship with the Université Notre Dame d’Haïti (UNDH) and St. Damien Hospital in Tabarre, Haiti to collaborate on a pediatric medical education curriculum for Haitian medical students. The collaboration, called the Medical Education and Leadership Development (MELD) Project, aims to address the unmet need of providing domestic pediatric clinical rotations to Haitian medical students and to develop a sustainable partnership that specifically addresses the needs of the Haitian medical community.
Under the leadership of Drs. Timothy Flanigan, Michael Koster, Lisa Denny, and Beatrice Lechner, the MELD Program continues to engage in bilateral exchange with residents and allied health professionals at UNDH and St. Damien. Dr. Theony Deshommes, a 2011 graduate of UNDH and a Brown trainee originally from Haiti, has been the liaison for Brown and facilitated numerous quality improvement and research programs benefitting Brown University students, residents, fellows and faculty.
Hasbro Children’s Hospital is also a leader within the St. Damien Academic Collaborative, a consortium of 11 North American-based Children’s Hospitals dedicated to building capacity for pediatric care in Haiti at St. Damien Hospital for sick children. The collaborative’s work was summarized in the following publication: Koster MP, Williams JH, Gautier J, Alce R and Trappey BE (2017) A Sustained Partnership between a Haitian Children’s Hospital and North American Academic Medical Centers. Front. Public Health 5:122.