Medical students from five states participate in an unprecedented project that aims to bring medical care to riverside communities in the Amazon. Aboard a hospital boat on the Tapajós River, at least 30 students will attend ten riverside communities located in the municipalities of Santarém, Aveiro and Belterra, in Pará.
The “Amazon Mission Project” seeks to provide up to 3,000 consultations in 15 days, combining face-to-face consultations and telemedicine. The first action started this month and other expeditions will continue in 2023, aiming to expand medical care to the local population.
The expedition is part of the vertical Medicine project of Ânima Educação, Inspiralli; and takes students from the group’s six medical schools, supervised by 10 professors, aboard the hospital boat.
In addition to helping residents, the project aims to provide students with a humanized approach to Medicine, as explained by Prof. Dr. Lena Peres, Director of Training and Teacher Development at Inspirali and leader of the expedition.
“Our purpose is to train doctors with critical and reflective thinking, concerned with the needs of disadvantaged communities, who can look at the whole context and be able to propose solutions. It will be a rescue of humanitarian medicine from a connection between ‘ancient’ and modern medicine”, said the professor.
Abaré II
The Abaré II hospital boat, on which the expedition will sail along the Tapajós River, offers facilities for clinical and dental care: there are four offices, a room for minor surgeries and a laboratory structure for clinical analysis and radiographs, in addition to accommodation for the members of the mission.
The low-draft vessel is suitable for navigating shallower rivers, which allows it to reach more communities, and will be used on all project expeditions.
Belterra City Hall will assign a family health strategy team to also participate in the expedition, allowing local professionals to work together with Inspirali students and teachers.
Students of the last year of Medicine from the following institutions participate in the action: Universidade Potiguar / UnP (RN); Salvador University / Unifacs (BA); Belo Horizonte University Center / UniBH (MG); São Judas University (SP); Anhembi Morumbi University (SP) and Southern University of Santa Catarina / UniSul (SC).
Child mortality
The project will also address the issue of infant mortality. Belterra, a city that is more than 700 km from Belém, the capital of Pará, currently has one of the highest rates in this regard: 19.1 deaths per 1,000 live births (in Brazil, there are 12 per 1,000).
The expedition will provide guidance to residents and basic prevention and health promotion actions, in order to contribute to the reduction of the index.
“At Inspirali, we are an organization with 14 medical courses, 1,500 professors and 13,000 students and we have an obligation to fulfill our purpose, which is to transform Brazil and health through education”, said Prof. Dr. José Lúcio Machado, medical director of Inspirali, who will also participate in part of the expedition.
“Missão Amazônia is a project the size of our purpose. We want to help change health indicators, such as infant mortality, and somehow improve the health of the local population, reinforcing the spaces organized by the Unified Health System”, added the professor.
Source: CNN Brasil
