The José Jamil Miranda Memorial Fund - Yale School of Medicine
"This letter is to say thank you for making all this possible. Since we began facilitating clinical elective experiences for Yale medical students 11 years ago, a total of 224 students have traveled to 14 sites in 13 countries. The Major Jose Jamil Miranda Memorial Fund is influencing careers and changing medicine."
José Jamil Miranda was a great man, loved and admired by his colleagues and patients alike, José began his medical education at Yale in 1997 in the United States Army Health Professions Scholarship Program. In 2001, he earned his MPH from Harvard School of Public Health in and his MD from Yale in 2002.
The Yale school of medicine felt the loss of José the same way his friends and family did, inspired by his actions they decided to create The José Jamil Miranda Memorial Fund, helping their students achieve José's life-long dream of bringing health students to medical missions around the world.
Because until every health student goes on a medical mission trip, we have work to do.
Yale SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
Office of lnternational
Medical Student Education
Edward S. Harkness Hall (ESH)
Room214
367 Cedar Street
New Haven CT 06510
June 26, 2017
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Miranda:
It's that time of year when the Yale medical students pursuing international clerkships have all returned to New Haven, many have graduated, and we are preparing for a new cycle of placements in the school's affiliated clinical sites. This past year has been exceptional in many ways and it culminated, for me, when one of our most international of alumnae returned to campus to give the Commencement address.
Kinari Webb, M.D. graduated in 2002, several years before the formation of the Office of International Medical Student Education. Nonetheless, she exemplifies its mission and has been integral to the formation of our network and the experiences of our students abroad. After residency, Dr. Webb established a health clinic in a remote section of Borneo, Indonesia, a region she had explored as an undergraduate studying orangutans a decade earlier. The health clinic and partner organizations provide low-cost care and a mobile clinic, and they support initiatives in organic farming, reforestation, and conservation. Residents of the area can earn credits for health care by pledging not to engage in illegal logging. They can pay for doctor visits by planting seedlings. Among the other things the clinic does is expose Yale medical students to the practice of medicine in settings where resources are scarce.
Sitting in a coffee shop in New Haven, Dr. Webb said she was happy to see so many familiar faces, including students who had already completed clerkships in Borneo. "I had three of them come up to me at Commencement to say that it had changed their lives," she said. We lmow that students who return from such experiences are often transformed. They have a greater appreciation for physical exam skills, broader medical lmowledge, are more likely to practice medicine in underserved populations, and often exhibit greater compassion.
This past year, 26 students traveled to 11 countries. They observed and participated in clinics, operating rooms, hospital wards, and home visits. They saw patients suffer from conditions that would have been treated routinely at home. They witnessed families taking on a role in patient care that is unseen in the US - providing meals and nursing care and deciding whether to withhold bad news from the patient, in keeping with cultural norms. And they discovered new flavors of the doctor-patient relationship. In Argentina, one student reflected, "Physicians greeted patients and their family members with a kiss on the cheek or an affectionate squeeze of the hand."
This letter is to say thank you for making all this possible. Since we began facilitating clinical elective experiences for Yale medical students 11 years ago, a total of 224 students have traveled to 14 sites in 13 countries. The Major Jose Jamil Miranda Memorial Fund is influencing careers and changing medicine.
This valued fund in your son's honor enabled Jessica Chen and Ava Yap to travel to Thailand and Uganda. I am pleased to share with you their reflections and thank-you notes. We are deeply grateful for this support, which has contributed significantly to the growth of the program and its popularity among students. This memorial fund plays an important part in allowing students to see how medicine is practiced in under-resourced settings, understand the social determinants of health, and apply this lmowledge for the betterment of our health care system and the health of people around the globe.
Sincerely,
Robert M. Roh augh, M.D.
Director, Office of International Medical Student Education
Professor of Psychiatry
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