PIH patient Clara (second from left), her grandmother (left) and third-year residents Drs. Catherine Hooper Miele (center) and Nick Kwaan (back) and PIH Medical Director Dr. Perry Jansen (right). Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Perry Jansen. |
The UCLA Program in Global Health has a strong collaboration with the Partners in Hope (PIH) Medical Center in Lilongwe, Malawi. PIH is a Malawian nongovernmental organization founded by Perry Jansen, MD. Dr. Jansen completed his residency in family practice at UCLA in 1994. PIH provides free HIV education and care to Malawi's poor and treats more than 5,000 patients per month.
In 2007, the UCLA Program in Global Health and the Department of Medicine established a formal clinical-rotation experience in Malawi. During a grand rounds at UCLA, Thomas Coates, MD, director of the UCLA Program in Global Health, asked Dr. Jansen, "With all the challenges, what keeps you in Malawi?" Dr. Jansen replied, "It is a combination of God's calling in my heart as well as the joy of seeing patients everyday who would not be alive without the help that PIH brings."
According to Dr. Jansen, "PIH has grown beyond what we could have imagined. In addition to outpatient and inpatient care at PIH, the staff is providing training and mentoring at a number of mission hospitals and rural health centers throughout central and northern Malawi. We have an urgent need for additional physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants."
If you are interested in a short-term or long-term medical mission at PIH, contact John Hamilton, administrative director, PIH, at jhamilton@mednet.ucla.edu.
For more information on Partners in Hope Medical Center, click on "Countries" at: globalhealth.med.ucla.edu
