RECENT GRAD TACKLES HEALTH CRISES IN GLOBAL HOT-SPOTS

Americans have increasingly adopted global perspectives on economic, political and cultural developments. The same is true of health care, where catastrophes of war, nature’s destructive power and the challenges confronting developing countries all have global consequences. The West Nile Fever outbreak in New York City, concerns about Mad Cow Disease and the spread of HIV-AIDS dramatically illustrate that our world continues to shrink.

Few School of Medicine alumni are as engaged with global health issues as Jamie Eliades, MD, ’96. Currently a fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Department of Emergency Medicine’s Center for International Emergency, Disaster and Refugee Studies, Dr. Eliades is also completing a masters degree in public health and has been gaining first-hand experience around the world.

Originally attracted to a career in emergency medicine by its “pace and variety,” Dr. Eliades’ undergraduate medical education included a clinical rotation in San Jose, Costa Rica. During residency training at the University of Illinois, Chicago, he met his mentor, fellow alumnus, Michael VanRooyen, MD, ’88. Dr. VanRooyen, featured in the February issue of Readers’ Digest as one of its “Health Heroes, 2001,” relocated to Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins and in 1997 founded the center. In collaboration with public and private agencies, American physicians are dispatched to help build emergency services systems and disaster relief programs throughout the world. 

Not surprisingly, Hopkins’ international focus has provided Dr. Eliades “the perfect fellowship program.” As co-coordinator of the Kosovo Leadership in Emergency Medicine Program, he is leading a two-year effort, begun last September, to establish an emergency medical system in the region devastated by the recent Balkan conflicts. Previously, he served in Kosovo as a consultant for the International Medical Corp, and other assignments have taken him to Africa. Under the auspices of a United States Agency for International Development/Samaritan’s Purse funded project and the Rwanda Ministry of Health, he taught in Kigali, Rwanda’s capitol, and provided clinical care in small rural hospitals.

A lesser, but notably glamorous part of Dr. Eliades’ international experience has been his service on Hopkins medical teams accompanying government officials and VIPs abroad. The principal physician on Jimmy Carter’s 1999 election monitoring team in Mozambique, he also served on the medical staff during President Clinton’s trip to Brunei and Vietnam last November.

Dr. Eliades plans a career in international public health. Considering an extended overseas project when his fellowship ends, he hopes for future opportunities to address world health issues by participating in shaping America’s international health policy. “By creating sustainable and equitable health care systems for those in need, the United States can help people around the world.”