by Bryan Gibel
Daily Lobo
The average graduate from UNM's medical school in 2005 was more than $90,000 in debt, according to a study by U.S. News and World Report.
More than 100 U.S. medical students, including one UNM alumna, found an opportunity to study for free in an unlikely setting - Cuba.
The Latin American School of Medicine is an internationally certified medical school.
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The program is offered by the Cuban government and the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, a Harlem, N.Y., nonprofit.
It allows students to study medicine with a full scholarship from the Cuban government.
Students who attend the school must commit to work for two years in a public health clinic in underserved communities in the United States, said Ellen Bernstein, associate director of the foundation.
"It's going to provide health and healing to communities that haven't had it before," she said. "They will come back fully trained, thanks to Cuba's help, and they'll be offering services that are badly needed."
Studying medicine in Cuba
Although it is in Cuba, the Latin American School of Medicine is not tainted by ideology or government affairs, said Tatyana Guerrero-Pezzano, a student in the program.
"This isn't a political program at all. It's just to train doctors," she said. "If you want an excellent medical education for free, this is the place to look."
Guerrero-Pezzano, who grew up in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, began her fifth year of medical school in Cuba this fall.
The first class of eight U.S. doctors graduated from the program July 24 at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana.
They will help fill a vital need for public health care in underserved communities in the United States when they begin practicing medicine, Bernstein said.
"The Cubans cover the cost of tuition, room, board, books, toiletries, and they even give a small stipend which is pocket money to take the bus and stuff," Bernstein said. "(Medical students) have the freedom to practice where communities don't have the resources to pay them a high salary, but where medical attention is sorely needed."
The program is accredited nationally and internationally, but it needs accreditation from individual states before students can practice medicine in them, said Arnold Trujillo, a recruiter with the program.
He said the program is on track to be accredited by the New Mexico Board of Medical Examiners within a year, which is before the New Mexican students are set to graduate.
How the program started
The Latin American School of Medicine opened its doors in 1998 to help Latin America countries devastated by hurricanes, said Lucius Walker, executive director of the religious
foundation.
Cuba trains doctors for free from around the world because it sees universal health care as a human right, Walker said.
"The idea Fidel (Castro) had was to open a medical school to teach and train doctors who would go back to the regions devastated by hurricanes to work amongst the most affected," he said.
Walker said the medical school has 3,500 students from more than 20 countries in the Americas, the Caribbean and Africa.
The scholarship program for U.S. students began in 2000, when members of the Congressional Black Caucus visited Cuba to learn about its health care system, Walker said.
The first class of U.S. students began the six-year medical program in April 2001.
Although the U.S. Treasury Department prohibits most United States citizens from traveling to or trading with Cuba, Walker said the program is protected by a special federal license.
"Despite the Bush regime's hostility towards Cuba, the students who graduate from the program are considered the same as graduates from any other fully approved international program," Bernstein said.
A New Mexican in Havana
Growing up in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, Guerrero-Pezzano knew she wanted to be a doctor.
She said she started at UNM but became disillusioned with the corporate influence in American health care.
"It started as one of those childhood dreams," she said. "By the time I was at the age to apply for medical school, I had sort of lost my attraction with the business-oriented direction that health care was going in America."
The full scholarship from Cuba opened the door to medical school for her, Guerrero-Pezzano said.
Cuban medicine has an excellent reputation for family and preventative care, which are her areas of interest, she said.
But she said there are challenges that come with training in Cuba, such as learning in Spanish, living with basic accommodations and having less access to innovative medicines and technology available in the U.S.
She said the program has benefits that outweigh the disadvantages.
"They will practice with a certain sensitivity and skill, and they'll know the community where they're working," she said. "Plus, they'll be totally bilingual, which is worth its weight in gold in almost any U.S. hospital."
Guerrero-Pezzano said it is inspiring to work in a country with free, universal health care. She said Cuban doctors focus on patients' needs rather than the cost of quality treatment.
The doctors at the medical school emphasize working with patients rather than lab results and high-tech equipment, she said.
"The training is just awesome," she said. "Sometimes they'll tell us to pretend we're in the mountains with nothing else than our stethoscope."
Revitalizing public health in New Mexico?
New Mexico's health care is one of the worst in the United States, according a ranking by Morgan Quitno Press.
The state was 49th in the research company's 2007 Healthiest State Rankings.
The ranking compares health care according to 21 factors, including access to providers and affordability of care.
Cuba has less money and resources than the U.S., but it provides quality health care for all its citizens, Guerrero-Pezzano said.
She said Cuba's focus on preventative health care and education could benefit underserved communities in New Mexico and the United States.
"If we were to focus on health promotion and prevention instead of treating something once it's already developed into a full-blown disease, I think this country and this state would have a lot less of a bill to pay in terms of public sector health care," she said.
