Latin America
Related: About this forumIn a first, US university to send students to Cuban hospitals (for credits)
In a first, US university to send students to Cuban hospitals
With long strained US-Cuban relations on the mend, Michigan State University has become the first US school offering medical students routine learning time in Cuban hospitals, MSU announced Wednesday.
While some US students have attended Cuba's medical school on their own in the past, the development is a landmark for US institutions of higher education since bilateral ties were reestablished in July after five decades of Cold War bad blood.
"This is a first ... for American medical students to be able to walk the halls of three of Cuba’s main hospitals in Havana and receive credit for the experience," William Cunningham, assistant dean for the College of Osteopathic Medicine in West Michigan, said in a statement.
The goal of the two-week program for osteopathic and human medicine students, which starts in April, is to study how Cuba's universal health care has achieved stellar low infant mortality rates while operating on a shoestring budget.
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Human101948
(3,457 posts)Average life expectancy is 77.5 years, compared to 78.1 years in the United States, and infant and child mortality rates match or beat our own. There’s one doctor for every 170 people, more than twice the per-capita U.S. average.
Not everything is perfect in Cuba. There are shortages of medicines, and the best care is reserved for elites. But it’s still a powerful feat. “In Cuba, a little over $300 per person is spent on health care each year. In the U.S., we’re spending over $7,000 per person,” said Drain, co-author of Caring for the World and an essay published April 29 in Science. “They’re able to achieve great health outcomes on a modest budget.”
http://www.wired.com/2010/04/cuban-health-lessons/
Mika
(17,751 posts)
Human101948
(3,457 posts)The US ranks 3rd in health care expenditures, spending 17.9% of its GDP on health (2011). In contrast, Cuba only spent 10% of its GDP, putting it on par with Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
What does the US gain for its vastly greater financial investment? Not so much, it seems. Infant mortality is lower in Cuba and the under 5 year old mortality rate is quite low. Life expectancy is almost identical in the two countries. This is achieved despite huge disparities in wealth. (The only area where mortality is significantly higher in Cuba is that of maternal mortality).
http://www.forbes.com/sites/judystone/2014/12/22/cuba-cost-effective-healthcare/
Mika
(17,751 posts)Learn from Cuba, Says World Bank
http://www.ipsnews.net/2001/05/finance-learn-from-cuba-says-world-bank/
Judi Lynn
(160,630 posts)Who could have guessed?
Thank you, so much, Mika.
A lot of U.S. Americans don't know that U.S. American students have been getting their medical degrees in Cuba por nada, on scholarships from the Cuba government, based upon their agreement to spend an agreed period of time after graduation working for the people of their own communities, among those who could not afford medical treatment on their own.
Anyone who can't grasp the essential rightness of this arrangement is really handicapped morally.
Work in community as payment for free medical education. What COULD be clearer, more logical? Not greed, we know that, don't we?
Many U.S. graduates have already returned and worked to help their fellow indigenous, migrant, urban, or rural neighbors, and there are always more anxiously awaiting their turn to enter the program.
Thanks, so much, for this great news, Mika.
