Research Zoom Meeting

Date & Time: Thursday, May 7 — 12:00 p.m.—1:00 p.m.

Location: The Zoom link is in calendar invite on your calendar. If you don't have the calendar invite, email Emily Danich at edanich@umn.edu to get added.

Topic: "Introduction to Numeracy: Apophenia, Human Nature & Scientific Evidence" by Burton W. Lee, MD 

Monthly Pediatric Global Health Track Dinner Meeting

Date & Time: Monday, May 11 — 7:00 p.m.—8:15 p.m.

Location: The Zoom link is in calendar invite on your calendar. If you don't have the calendar invite, email Emily Danich at edanich@umn.edu to get added.

Topic: Pneumonia & Vaccine and Global Child Health

GPEDS Presentation: Pneumonia (Acute Respiratory Infections) in Children in LMICs & Vaccine and Global Child Health

Before attending this event, please log into Canvas.umn.edu, click on the Global Pediatrics Education Series 2.0 course, take the pre-test, then click on A. Fundamentals of Global Child Health, click on Vaccine and Global Child Health. Watch the video, the quiz, and come prepared to discuss. Then click on B. Disease Identification Management, click on Pneumonia (Acute Respiratory Infections) in Children in LMICs. Watch the video, take the quiz, and come prepared to discuss.

Global Medicine Lecture Series

Date & Time: Wednesday, May 20 — 6:00 p.m.—7:30 p.m.

Location: The Zoom link is in calendar invite on your calendar. If you don't have the calendar invite, email Emily Danich at edanich@umn.edu to get added.

Topic: Health Equity 

Note from Dr. Andrew Wu Post-Cambodia 

For the third time in three years, I traveled to Kratie, Cambodia – a relatively small rural, but growing, town of 50,000 people along the Mekong River 4 hours northeast of the capital by car. It was however my first time going with my family – my wife, my 10 month old daughter, and my sister-in-law. In fact, it was my first time traveling internationally with an infant as well. Little did I know this trip would be full of “firsts”.

For the past few years, I had visited Kratie to work with Chenla Children’s Healthcare, a group founded and formed from a partnership between Bill and Lori Housworth and local Cambodians. Bill and Lori are U.S.-trained Med-Peds physicians who have lived in Cambodia for the past 10+ years with their 4 kids and have monumentally changed the way pediatric healthcare operates in the country. They are incredible physicians and outstanding friends and human beings. I suppose it’s no surprise I keep going back. In the past, my purpose of going to Chenla was to act as a junior attending on rounds, conduct simple research projects, provide formal educational material for the staff, and, most importantly, build relationships with the local Chenla staff. This time, the primary purpose of my visit this time was nearly all research.

For the past couple of years I’ve been working on developing a low-cost oxygen blender, designed for use in low-cost bubble CPAP. Oxygen toxicity is very real, but unfortunately low-resource settings rarely have access to oxygen blenders and have to resort to using oxygen tanks that give 100% oxygen or purchasing expensive equipment and having it shipped over. Our group partnered with the engineering department at the University of Minnesota (UMN) and made this device a reality. Now we are beginning a safety and feasibility trial of the device at Chenla. This is not my first involvement in a global health research project, but certainly my first time leading one!

While I was in Kratie for my scheduled 2 months, I did a number of things in order to make sure the study could run smoothly without me physically present the whole duration of the study. I introduced the device to the hospital leadership, like a "show and tell". They had questions, ideas, compliments, and concerns. I listened to all of them and incorporated most of those ideas – things like, where the equipment should be stored, who has access to it, how should we put a hole in the cap of the water container, and so forth. I brought over two very full luggage suitcases of equipment – nasal cannulae, ear plugs, oxygen tubing, oxygen analyzers, syringes, and the like. I met with the study team early on over a nice dinner and had a get-to-know-you sort of evening with them. I also met with the head nurse to make sure we should arrange nursing schedules to ensure time for study nurse training. The site PI at Chenla, who is a very good friend of mine and a phenomenal physician, and I reviewed and planned the training over coffee several times and over wine once. I purchased a file cabinet and folders to organize study documents. And more. If someone were to ask me how I was able to accomplish as much as we did over 2 months, the main ingredient was relationships. Over the past 3 years, I have formed strong friendships and professional relationships with Chenla staff at all levels of authority, from the housekeepers to the head nurse up to the medical director and further up to the administrative director of the hospital. It was a lovely experience to be able to collaborate with what I would consider the “work family” that exists at Chenla. 

Besides work, I got to show my family the famous (and nearly extinct) river dolphins in the Mekong; we traveled by ferry to Koh Truong, a gorgeous island you can bike around in the middle of the Mekong; and they were able to go to Mondolkiri, a much more rural and tropical destination 4 hours east of Kratie where they essentially stayed in cabins and hiked the jungles. Also, our daughter took her first steps in Cambodia! By the way, giving malaria prophylaxis to an infant is very difficult so kudos to parents who have been able to successfully do that over an extended period of time. 

And the last “first” – the coronavirus pandemic. This virus has unfortunately garnered many “firsts” in the world so I know I’m not alone in this. Even since before we left for Cambodia, I knew about the virus when it started in China. I had second thoughts about going or about my family going with me. My parents actually told me to reconsider going at all. While in Cambodia, we kept hearing news about it spreading and airlines cancelling flights, countries shutting borders – it was all pretty scary for us. We weren’t sure what to do. The Housworths were also on the fence about their family as well – Cambodia’s burden wasn’t (and continues to not be) as bad as the USA, but if it got bad, the medical care would be better in the States. So do we leave? Or stay? At one point, we had a trip scheduled to go to Siem Reap, one of my favorite cities in the world, and I wanted to show my family the city. There were also professional connections there I wanted to form. The night before we were scheduled to leave, Cambodia announced its first case in Siem Reap. It was our first real wake up call. My family and I had a very long conversation about it. We decided not to go. The rationale was that there was somewhere between a 0 and 100% chance we would bring back COVID19, but there was a 100% chance we would bring back anxiety about COVID19 to Kratie. What also cinched it for me was that if I went to Siem Reap and came back, Chenla would not allow me in the hospital building for 2 weeks, which would be detrimental to research planning. 

As day after day passed and news article after news article was read, I finally received a notice from the UMN that I needed to return ASAP. I was told to come back by March 20, but finding a flight for 3 adults and a baby was difficult, so we scheduled our flight day for March 22, which was 1 day after study training was scheduled to end. This was 1 week earlier than originally planned so we had to cram a lot of study training material into 1 week instead of 2. We managed to do it thanks to the stellar study team we have assembled at Chenla. 

All in all, a whirlwind of firsts. But we were lucky – we managed to change our flight to an earlier date at no charge; there were no crowded congested lines at any of the airports (which were more like deserted towns); and we were never quarantined or stopped at any ports of entry. I know not everyone was that lucky with travel. And not everyone has been lucky with COVID19 either. It’s a very, very scary time for everyone. In a way I feel like we narrowly got back home, but in another way, I feel like we’ve entered even more dangerous territory by coming back. Whatever we had decided to do, my family and I did decide on one thing, no matter what – we stick together.

And of course, six feet apart from others. Thanks for reading. And stay healthy.