medicine World That Brings the fascinating. “In Spain, students go right to medical school after high school. I was working with residents who were just a year older than me. They also don’t have the debt we have here,” says Jacobo. “But I do feel the competency levels, at this stage of training, are different. Here we are more mature and seem to be better prepared, since we have had so many more years of schooling prior to becoming medical residents.” In Julie’s case, the clinic environment pushed her to become a better diagnostician and to deal with personal challenges. “You really learn a lot about yourself in situations like this,” Julie says. Pheobe Askie—as well as surgical residents Sharita Nagaraj, MD, and OB/GYN resident Karima Smith, MD. The group worked at five different clinical sites, each with a special interest or challenge in mind. In Apam, they taught about HIV, working with mothers and their newborns. In other areas, they looked at umbilical cord infections and taught mothers how to decrease them. At the Kumasi site, they did surgical simulations with surgeons as part of a teaching initiative to upgrade skills. In Cape Coast, where there are two hospitals, they provided obstetric and gynecologic help and services. They also still work with the Ministry of Health to provide continuing medical education, presenting lectures and C l o s e r missions to Ghana and Vietnam that Give Back Robert Wood Johnson Medical School professors and ignited a passion about global health in those who work with them. Charletta Ayers, MD, MPH, interim vice chair, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, and chief, obstetrical services, at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), directs the Ghana Global Health Elective through International Healthcare Volunteers (IHCV). Leonard Y. Lee, MD ’92, associate professor and interim chair, Department of Surgery, and chief, division of cardiothoracic surgery at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, directs the Mission to Vietnam through the “We are a profession of healers. To practice medicine—the act of it— helps foster empathy and compassion in all of us,” says Charletta Ayers, MD, MPH (far right), interim vice chair, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, and chief, obstetrical services, at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, with Phoebe Askie, MD ’14, who joined Dr. Ayers on the Ghana mission. 30 Robert Wood Johnson I MEDICINE m issions to both Ghana and simulations on topics such as laparoscopic surgery. A women’s health advocate, Dr. Ayers feels that during these experiences, “We learn so much from each other.” The Ghana mission began for a very personal reason. When Dr. Ayers and her husband—James Aikins, MD, FACOG, FACS, gynecologic oncologist at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University—were visiting 13 years ago, a niece of his died giving birth. Dr. Aikins’s grandmother looked at both him and Dr. Ayers and asked, “What are you going to do?” It was then that the mission was born. The creation of sustainable programs is what matters most to Dr. Ayers. Screenings for the prevention of cervical, colon, and breast cancer and continuing medical education are all important. And mentoring is key—the idea of teaching someone who can teach someone else. “We are a profession of healers,” says Dr. Ayers. “To practice medicine—the act of it— helps foster empathy and compassion in all of us.” Vietnam have made personal advocates for change out of two organization Hearts Around the World. Dr. Ayers takes medical students and residents to Ghana once a year. They have provided health services to 10,000 women and their families since 2002. IHCV is a not-forprofit organization that provides both health care services to women and their families and continuing medical education to health care professionals in underserved areas. This past year, Dr. Ayers co-led a group of 34 volunteers to Ghana, including two fourth-year medical students—Tejumola Adegoke and seeing 10,000 Patients a day Who are desperate for Care d r. Lee began working with Hearts Around the World four years ago. It is a group of cardiologists and car- JOHN EMERSON