Take a Step Back #4 - A Review of Episodes 14 to 16, Dr. Tracy Williams and Leizer Steppa

The Pursuit of Health Podcast

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In this our fourth Take A Step Back episode we take the opportunity to look back over and comment upon Episodes 14 thru 16. Our host, Dr. Fethke, is joined by two guests - a third year medical student, Leizer Steppa, and an experienced practicing primary care internist, Dr. Tracy Williams. Together they reflect on the lessons gleaned from these three episodes including;
Ep 14 (Parts 1&2) International Medicine and Earthquake relief in Haiti - Dr. Ronald Israelski

• Infrastructure - Resiliency and Sustainability as a goal
• Know the people you serve and focus on their needs, not your perceptions of their needs

Ep 15 (Parts 1-3) Building a Healthcare System in South Africa: Lessons from the HIV and Covid-19 Pandemics - Sagie Pillay

• Healthcare is a fundamental and critical factor in forming a new nation
• HIV experience highlighted inequities in healthcare
• Covid-19 - should have learned from past experiences and need to understand why we did not
• Politics can support of interfere with national healthcare

Ep 16 (Parts 1&2) The Experience of a Black Physician in the U.S. - Dr. Tyree Winter

• Structural Racism in US creates inequities in racial distribution of physicians
• People do better when their physician is someone they can identify with
• Outreach to under represented races is necessary and effective in improving the number and distribution of non-white physicians
• When we all do better - everyone wins.

This hour-long review of our prior guests foray into International Healthcare and The Racial Inequities of Healthcare at home and abroad proved to be very insightful and expanded upon these very important issues. The vantage point of combining students and practicing physicians once again has bourne fruit for our journey into several of the very relevant factors that are limiting our Global Healthcare Teams from being as effective as possible when delivering care to people. The Take-A-Step-Back format continues to move us along our journey of empowerment through knowledge and enhances our engagement in open discussion. In the end, if we truly care about the quality of the healthcare we deliver, it boils down to some basic principles - we must learn from our past and from each other.
In our next few episodes, the Pursuit of Health podcast will be returning to South Africa, addressing the healthcare impact of the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade with our obstetric and neonatal colleagues, and investigating the role of Universal Healthcare in addressing areas of waste in our healthcare system.
Our team at The Pursuit of Health Podcast can be reached for your feedback and suggestions for future topics of interest through Facebook and Instagram @drfethkemd on our website at drfethkemd.com.

Follow me on Instagram and Facebook @ericfethkemd and checkout my website at www.EricFethkeMD.com.
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