The Foundation for the Advancement of Medicine (FAMAID) has partnered with other nonprofit organizations and medical centers in order to provide aid to medical educators and practitioners in developing nations. FAMAID (www.FAMAID.org) helps donate equipment relating to the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer and infectious diseases in these developing countries. FAMAID believes that international medical education results in sustained health care services.
FAMAID devotes much of its energies, therefore, to helping organizations donate equipment, instruments, and provide training to local health care providers. Web-based and on-site training curricula are delivered and training programs are implemented on-site that incorporate social media, hands-on learning, and a careful assessment of acquired knowledge and technical skill. Outcomes are measured by the number of physicians trained, the quality of learning, and the number of patients ultimately benefitting from previously unperformed procedures that can now be offered.
During the past four years, FAMAID has assisted members of Doctors of the World Argentina, The World Bronchology Foundation, The Spanish Agency for International Cooperation, Bronchoscopy International (www.bronchoscopy.org), The South American Association for Bronchology, and The Chest Foundation of the American College of Chest Physicians in order to provide expertise and training in various countries of South American and Asia. For example:
- In Argentina equipment and training were provided to physicians working in public hospitals in the greater Buenos Aires region, destined for treatment of underinsured indigent patients.
- In the Canary Islands/Mauritania hands-on training in bronchoscopy and airway management was provided to physicians and surgeons of the Hopital Regional de Nouâdhibou ; the second largest city of Mauritania).
- In Mozambique through collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Mozambique, and Maputo Central Hospital in Maputo City (the capital city a flexible bronchoscope was delivered and training was undertaken for six physicians in order to enhance a technical plateau caring for patients with HIV..
- In Vietnam, several hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City have benefited from teaching, and are now providing rigid bronchoscopy treatments for patients with airway strictures, tumors and respiratory failure. Nicaragua ACCP Pro Bono Course 2008: March, 2008. ACCP Pro Bono Courses in Central America. We introduced for the first time, structured interactive workshops including hands-on training using inanimate models, for flexible bronchoscopy. This has now become a yearly element of the Pro Bono Central America Activities, with a next course planned for Costa Rica in March 2009.
- In India, in collaboration with Medwizindia, a physician-led company focused on education, more than 400 physicians in five different cities have benefited from hands on training and didactic lectures in diagnostic and therapeutic bronchoscopy.
- In Central America, projects are ongoing, consisting of delivery of web-based and on-site education in bronchoscopy and airway disorders in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. Seminars and hands-on training are taking place in collaboration with physicians from the University of California, the University Hospitals of Buenos Aires, and the Mayo Clinic in collaboration with Operation Blessing, a nonprofit NGO based in the USA with global community-based outreach programs.
- In Bolivia, hospital and community-based educational programs have been successful in raising awareness about lung and providing training in smoking cessation interventions to school teachers working in the cities of La Paz and Sucre. Equipment and training provided to the important Instituto de Thorax in La Paz resulted in a major benefit to physicians and their patients practicing in an environment where almost lung cancers are diagnosed at a late stage.