Mother and son
Course Leader:
Elaine Bearer, M.D., Ph.D.
Location:
San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala
When offered:
Throughout the year
Max. # of students: 2 - 3
Duration of rotation: 2 - 4 weeks
Type of rotation: Community health/public health/pathology
Primary Activity: To learn a clinical test at Brown, to collect samples from patients in Guatemela, to perform the test on these samples, to prepare an epidemiologic document analyzing the cumulative results and interpret them, based on primary medical literature.
Prerequisites: Completion of one core clerkship
Criteria for Passing: A presentation of some particular aspect of third world disease will be required to be submitted within two weeks of the end of the elective.
Criteria for Honors: Student must demonstrate significant depth of understanding of the public health issues and their relationship to the specific epidemiological study that the student has performed.
Nights on call: None
Description: Student will function as integral member of clinic. The student will be responsible for histories, physical exams, and surgical procedures. 		Elective clinical clerkship in Guatamala

Mission Statement
We are a group of health professionals, friends and students who feel an obligation to work with communities in the Third World that have many urgent needs. We believe that our efforts will be most effective if we focus them on one area over a period of years. Thus for several years now we have been providing direct medical care in the outlying districts of San Lucas Toliman in the highlands of Guatemala. Two Guatamalan children

Yet even as we believe our efforts are useful, we are aware that we are outsiders. The people of San Lucas Toliman, whose rich Maya and Ladino cultures we respect, are best able to determine how we can help without adversely affecting that culture.

Our central mission is to provide direct medical and dental care, educational support to local doctors, nurses and health promoters, gather health-related data and provide financial and material support for effective local programs and institutions that address the health, nutritional and hygiene needs of these communities.

We invite others who share our concern to join us in whatever ways they can best help: joining our health care teams working in San Lucas Toliman several times a year or working at home to support our efforts in Guatemala.

The San Lucas Health Project
The San Lucas Health Project, based in Providence, Rhode Island, provides the indigenous Maya of the San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala region with free year-round primary health care. The San Lucas Health Project, which was founded in 1987, has grown to over sixty volunteers ranging from doctors to medical students, health care administrators, registered nurses, and other interested members. Those volunteers who have traveled to the region have ranged in age from thirteen to the late-sixties.