WEBVTT 00:00:00.537 --> 00:00:02.159 I want to tell you 00:00:02.159 --> 00:00:06.850 how 20,000 remarkable young people 00:00:06.850 --> 00:00:08.706 from over 100 countries 00:00:08.706 --> 00:00:10.518 ended up in Cuba 00:00:10.518 --> 00:00:14.321 and are transforming health in their communities. 00:00:14.321 --> 00:00:16.401 Ninety percent of them would never 00:00:16.401 --> 00:00:17.973 have left home at all 00:00:17.973 --> 00:00:21.317 if it weren't for a scholarship to study medicine in Cuba 00:00:21.317 --> 00:00:23.128 and a commitment to go back 00:00:23.128 --> 00:00:26.756 to places like the ones they'd come from — 00:00:26.756 --> 00:00:30.203 remote farmlands, mountains, ghettos — 00:00:30.203 --> 00:00:33.689 to become doctors for people like themselves, 00:00:33.689 --> 00:00:35.781 to walk the walk. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:35.781 --> 00:00:38.447 Havana's Latin American Medical School: 00:00:38.447 --> 00:00:41.372 It's the largest medical school in the world, 00:00:41.372 --> 00:00:44.274 graduating 23,000 young doctors 00:00:44.274 --> 00:00:47.002 since its first class of 2005, 00:00:47.002 --> 00:00:50.611 with nearly 10,000 more in the pipeline. 00:00:50.611 --> 00:00:54.432 Its mission, to train physicians for the people 00:00:54.432 --> 00:00:56.483 who need them the most: 00:00:56.483 --> 00:00:58.419 the over one billion 00:00:58.419 --> 00:01:00.682 who have never seen a doctor, 00:01:00.682 --> 00:01:04.515 the people who live and die 00:01:04.515 --> 00:01:08.009 under every poverty line ever invented. 00:01:08.009 --> 00:01:10.259 Its students defy all norms. 00:01:10.259 --> 00:01:12.530 They're the school's biggest risk 00:01:12.530 --> 00:01:14.990 and also its best bet. 00:01:14.990 --> 00:01:17.505 They're recruited from the poorest, 00:01:17.505 --> 00:01:20.076 most broken places on our planet 00:01:20.076 --> 00:01:22.350 by a school that believes they can become 00:01:22.350 --> 00:01:23.857 not just the good 00:01:23.857 --> 00:01:25.792 but the excellent physicians 00:01:25.792 --> 00:01:28.545 their communities desperately need, 00:01:28.545 --> 00:01:32.197 that they will practice where most doctors don't, 00:01:32.197 --> 00:01:34.623 in places not only poor 00:01:34.623 --> 00:01:37.176 but oftentimes dangerous, 00:01:37.176 --> 00:01:40.202 carrying venom antidotes in their backpacks 00:01:40.202 --> 00:01:42.821 or navigating neighborhoods 00:01:42.821 --> 00:01:46.142 riddled by drugs, gangs and bullets, 00:01:46.142 --> 00:01:48.842 their home ground. 00:01:48.842 --> 00:01:50.168 The hope is that they will help 00:01:50.168 --> 00:01:52.768 transform access to care, 00:01:52.768 --> 00:01:55.187 the health picture in impoverished areas, 00:01:55.187 --> 00:01:57.346 and even the way medicine itself 00:01:57.346 --> 00:01:59.889 is learned and practiced, 00:01:59.889 --> 00:02:04.140 and that they will become pioneers in our global reach 00:02:04.140 --> 00:02:06.660 for universal health coverage, 00:02:06.660 --> 00:02:09.378 surely a tall order. 00:02:09.378 --> 00:02:13.504 Two big storms and this notion of "walk the walk" 00:02:13.504 --> 00:02:17.588 prompted creation of ELAM back in 1998. 00:02:17.588 --> 00:02:20.591 The Hurricanes Georges and Mitch 00:02:20.591 --> 00:02:22.143 had ripped through the Caribbean 00:02:22.143 --> 00:02:24.348 and Central America, 00:02:24.348 --> 00:02:26.727 leaving 30,000 dead 00:02:26.727 --> 00:02:29.610 and two and a half million homeless. 00:02:29.610 --> 00:02:33.303 Hundreds of Cuban doctors volunteered for disaster response, 00:02:33.303 --> 00:02:35.148 but when they got there, 00:02:35.148 --> 00:02:37.231 they found a bigger disaster: 00:02:37.231 --> 00:02:40.427 whole communities with no healthcare, 00:02:40.427 --> 00:02:42.751 doors bolted shut on rural hospitals 00:02:42.751 --> 00:02:44.630 for lack of staff, 00:02:44.630 --> 00:02:47.301 and just too many babies dying 00:02:47.301 --> 00:02:50.236 before their first birthday. 00:02:50.236 --> 00:02:54.070 What would happen when these Cuban doctors left? 00:02:54.070 --> 00:02:56.784 New doctors were needed to make care sustainable, 00:02:56.784 --> 00:02:58.096 but where would they come from? 00:02:58.096 --> 00:03:00.901 Where would they train? NOTE Paragraph 00:03:00.901 --> 00:03:05.344 In Havana, the campus of a former naval academy 00:03:05.344 --> 00:03:08.269 was turned over to the Cuban Health Ministry 00:03:08.269 --> 00:03:11.620 to become the Latin American Medical School, 00:03:11.620 --> 00:03:13.633 ELAM. 00:03:13.633 --> 00:03:16.107 Tuition, room and board, and a small stipend 00:03:16.107 --> 00:03:18.018 were offered to hundreds of students 00:03:18.018 --> 00:03:21.051 from the countries hardest hit by the storms. 00:03:21.051 --> 00:03:23.330 As a journalist in Havana, 00:03:23.330 --> 00:03:26.047 I watched the first 97 Nicaraguans arrive 00:03:26.047 --> 00:03:28.589 in March 1999, 00:03:28.589 --> 00:03:31.305 settling into dorms barely refurbished 00:03:31.305 --> 00:03:34.984 and helping their professors not only sweep out the classrooms 00:03:34.984 --> 00:03:39.663 but move in the desks and the chairs and the microscopes. 00:03:39.663 --> 00:03:41.542 Over the next few years, 00:03:41.542 --> 00:03:43.454 governments throughout the Americas 00:03:43.454 --> 00:03:46.627 requested scholarships for their own students, 00:03:46.627 --> 00:03:48.505 and the Congressional Black Caucus 00:03:48.505 --> 00:03:51.880 asked for and received hundreds of scholarships 00:03:51.880 --> 00:03:55.120 for young people from the USA. 00:03:55.120 --> 00:03:58.832 Today, among the 23,000 00:03:58.832 --> 00:04:01.847 are graduates from 83 countries 00:04:01.847 --> 00:04:04.851 in the Americas, Africa and Asia, 00:04:04.851 --> 00:04:10.454 and enrollment has grown to 123 nations. 00:04:10.454 --> 00:04:12.658 More than half the students are young women. 00:04:12.658 --> 00:04:14.050 They come from 100 ethnic groups, 00:04:14.050 --> 00:04:16.075 speak 50 different languages. 00:04:16.075 --> 00:04:19.216 WHO Director Margaret Chan said, 00:04:19.216 --> 00:04:23.254 "For once, if you are poor, female, 00:04:23.254 --> 00:04:25.516 or from an indigenous population, 00:04:25.516 --> 00:04:27.221 you have a distinct advantage, 00:04:27.221 --> 00:04:31.950 an ethic that makes this medical school unique." NOTE Paragraph 00:04:31.950 --> 00:04:36.100 Luther Castillo comes from San Pedro de Tocamacho 00:04:36.100 --> 00:04:38.970 on the Atlantic coast of Honduras. 00:04:38.970 --> 00:04:40.882 There's no running water, 00:04:40.882 --> 00:04:42.682 no electricity there, 00:04:42.682 --> 00:04:46.282 and to reach the village, you have to walk for hours 00:04:46.282 --> 00:04:49.195 or take your chances in a pickup truck like I did 00:04:49.195 --> 00:04:52.490 skirting the waves of the Atlantic. 00:04:52.490 --> 00:04:57.131 Luther was one of 40 Tocamacho children 00:04:57.131 --> 00:04:59.134 who started grammar school, 00:04:59.134 --> 00:05:01.878 the sons and daughters of a black indigenous people 00:05:01.878 --> 00:05:03.734 known as the Garífuna, 00:05:03.734 --> 00:05:07.210 20 percent of the Honduran population. 00:05:07.210 --> 00:05:12.363 The nearest healthcare was fatal miles away. 00:05:12.363 --> 00:05:15.850 Luther had to walk three hours every day 00:05:15.850 --> 00:05:17.751 to middle school. 00:05:17.751 --> 00:05:19.832 Only 17 made that trip. 00:05:19.832 --> 00:05:21.936 Only five went on to high school, 00:05:21.936 --> 00:05:24.100 and only one to university: 00:05:24.100 --> 00:05:26.121 Luther, to ELAM, 00:05:26.121 --> 00:05:30.130 among the first crop of Garífuna graduates. 00:05:30.130 --> 00:05:33.000 Just two Garífuna doctors had preceded them 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:36.044 in all of Honduran history. 00:05:36.044 --> 00:05:41.945 Now there are 69, thanks to ELAM. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:41.945 --> 00:05:45.145 Big problems need big solutions, 00:05:45.145 --> 00:05:48.937 sparked by big ideas, imagination and audacity, 00:05:48.937 --> 00:05:51.940 but also solutions that work. 00:05:51.940 --> 00:05:55.270 ELAM's faculty had no handy evidence base 00:05:55.270 --> 00:05:58.790 to guide them, so they learned the hard way, 00:05:58.790 --> 00:06:02.479 by doing and correcting course as they went. 00:06:02.479 --> 00:06:04.741 Even the brightest students 00:06:04.741 --> 00:06:06.654 from these poor communities 00:06:06.654 --> 00:06:08.330 weren't academically prepared 00:06:08.330 --> 00:06:11.023 for six years of medical training, 00:06:11.023 --> 00:06:14.680 so a bridging course was set up in sciences. 00:06:14.680 --> 00:06:16.255 Then came language: 00:06:16.255 --> 00:06:19.416 these were Mapuche, Quechuas, Guaraní, Garífuna, 00:06:19.416 --> 00:06:21.193 indigenous peoples 00:06:21.193 --> 00:06:23.393 who learned Spanish as a second language, 00:06:23.393 --> 00:06:26.190 or Haitians who spoke Creole. 00:06:26.190 --> 00:06:28.127 So Spanish became part 00:06:28.127 --> 00:06:32.285 of the pre-pre-med curriculum. 00:06:32.285 --> 00:06:35.227 Even so, in Cuba, 00:06:35.227 --> 00:06:38.461 the music, the food, the smells, 00:06:38.461 --> 00:06:41.150 just about everything was different, 00:06:41.150 --> 00:06:46.155 so faculty became family, ELAM home. 00:06:46.155 --> 00:06:48.968 Religions ranged from indigenous beliefs 00:06:48.968 --> 00:06:53.000 to Yoruba, Muslim and Christian evangelical. 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:57.484 Embracing diversity became a way of life. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:57.484 --> 00:06:59.474 Why have so many countries 00:06:59.474 --> 00:07:01.949 asked for these scholarships? 00:07:01.949 --> 00:07:05.201 First, they just don't have enough doctors, 00:07:05.201 --> 00:07:06.967 and where they do, their distribution 00:07:06.967 --> 00:07:09.409 is skewed against the poor, 00:07:09.409 --> 00:07:11.871 because our global health crisis 00:07:11.871 --> 00:07:14.836 is fed by a crisis in human resources. 00:07:14.836 --> 00:07:18.688 We are short four to seven million health workers 00:07:18.688 --> 00:07:21.152 just to meet basic needs, 00:07:21.152 --> 00:07:23.010 and the problem is everywhere. 00:07:23.010 --> 00:07:25.562 Doctors are concentrated in the cities, 00:07:25.562 --> 00:07:28.172 where only half the world's people live, 00:07:28.172 --> 00:07:29.960 and within cities, 00:07:29.960 --> 00:07:34.139 not in the shantytowns or South L.A. 00:07:34.139 --> 00:07:35.905 Here in the United States, 00:07:35.905 --> 00:07:38.406 where we have healthcare reform, 00:07:38.406 --> 00:07:40.954 we don't have the professionals we need. 00:07:40.954 --> 00:07:43.469 By 2020, we will be short 00:07:43.469 --> 00:07:47.608 45,000 primary care physicians. 00:07:47.608 --> 00:07:49.765 And we're also part of the problem. 00:07:49.765 --> 00:07:52.232 The United States is the number one importer 00:07:52.232 --> 00:07:56.596 of doctors from developing countries. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:56.596 --> 00:07:59.465 The second reasons students flock to Cuba 00:07:59.465 --> 00:08:01.692 is the island's own health report card, 00:08:01.692 --> 00:08:04.662 relying on strong primary care. 00:08:04.662 --> 00:08:06.484 A commission from The Lancet 00:08:06.484 --> 00:08:08.990 rates Cuba among the best performing 00:08:08.990 --> 00:08:11.839 middle-income countries in health. 00:08:11.839 --> 00:08:13.785 Save the Children ranks Cuba 00:08:13.785 --> 00:08:18.421 the best country in Latin America to become a mother. 00:08:18.421 --> 00:08:21.410 Cuba has similar life expectancy 00:08:21.410 --> 00:08:24.642 and lower infant mortality than the United States, 00:08:24.642 --> 00:08:26.823 with fewer disparities, 00:08:26.823 --> 00:08:28.623 while spending per person 00:08:28.623 --> 00:08:31.638 one 20th of what we do on health 00:08:31.638 --> 00:08:33.787 here in the USA. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:33.787 --> 00:08:36.779 Academically, ELAM is tough, 00:08:36.779 --> 00:08:40.410 but 80 percent of its students graduate. 00:08:40.410 --> 00:08:41.756 The subjects are familiar — 00:08:41.756 --> 00:08:44.230 basic and clinical sciences — 00:08:44.230 --> 00:08:46.656 but there are major differences. 00:08:46.656 --> 00:08:50.267 First, training has moved out of the ivory tower 00:08:50.267 --> 00:08:53.169 and into clinic classrooms and neighborhoods, 00:08:53.169 --> 00:08:56.533 the kinds of places most of these grads will practice. 00:08:56.533 --> 00:09:00.627 Sure, they have lectures and hospital rotations too, 00:09:00.627 --> 00:09:05.657 but community-based learning starts on day one. 00:09:05.657 --> 00:09:09.423 Second, students treat the whole patient, 00:09:09.423 --> 00:09:11.337 mind and body, 00:09:11.337 --> 00:09:13.843 in the context of their families, their communities 00:09:13.843 --> 00:09:15.990 and their culture. 00:09:15.990 --> 00:09:18.890 Third, they learn public health: 00:09:18.890 --> 00:09:21.990 to assess their patients' drinking water, housing, 00:09:21.990 --> 00:09:25.286 social and economic conditions. 00:09:25.286 --> 00:09:27.817 Fourth, they are taught 00:09:27.817 --> 00:09:30.584 that a good patient interview 00:09:30.584 --> 00:09:32.688 and a thorough clinical exam 00:09:32.688 --> 00:09:35.523 provide most of the clues for diagnosis, 00:09:35.523 --> 00:09:39.426 saving costly technology for confirmation. 00:09:39.426 --> 00:09:42.976 And finally, they're taught over and over again 00:09:42.976 --> 00:09:45.020 the importance of prevention, 00:09:45.020 --> 00:09:47.420 especially as chronic diseases 00:09:47.420 --> 00:09:51.580 cripple health systems worldwide. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:51.580 --> 00:09:54.770 Such an in-service learning 00:09:54.770 --> 00:09:57.370 also comes with a team approach, 00:09:57.370 --> 00:10:00.237 as much how to work in teams 00:10:00.237 --> 00:10:02.183 as how to lead them, 00:10:02.183 --> 00:10:04.310 with a dose of humility. 00:10:04.310 --> 00:10:07.110 Upon graduation, these doctors share 00:10:07.110 --> 00:10:09.820 their knowledge with nurse's aids, midwives, 00:10:09.820 --> 00:10:11.790 community health workers, 00:10:11.790 --> 00:10:14.176 to help them become better at what they do, 00:10:14.176 --> 00:10:16.121 not to replace them, 00:10:16.121 --> 00:10:19.250 to work with shamans and traditional healers. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:21.311 --> 00:10:23.870 ELAM's graduates: 00:10:23.870 --> 00:10:28.527 Are they proving this audacious experiment right? 00:10:28.527 --> 00:10:30.822 Dozens of projects give us an inkling 00:10:30.822 --> 00:10:33.390 of what they're capable of doing. 00:10:33.390 --> 00:10:35.153 Take the Garífuna grads. 00:10:35.153 --> 00:10:37.343 They not only went to work back home, 00:10:37.343 --> 00:10:39.750 but they organized their communities to build 00:10:39.750 --> 00:10:43.151 Honduras' first indigenous hospital. 00:10:43.151 --> 00:10:45.300 With an architect's help, 00:10:45.300 --> 00:10:49.777 residents literally raised it from the ground up. 00:10:49.777 --> 00:10:51.959 The first patients walked through the doors 00:10:51.959 --> 00:10:54.299 in December 2007, 00:10:54.299 --> 00:10:56.808 and since then, the hospital has received 00:10:56.808 --> 00:10:59.958 nearly one million patient visits. 00:10:59.958 --> 00:11:02.119 And government is paying attention, 00:11:02.119 --> 00:11:04.640 upholding the hospital as a model 00:11:04.640 --> 00:11:09.819 of rural public health for Honduras. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:09.819 --> 00:11:13.467 ELAM's graduates are smart, 00:11:13.467 --> 00:11:16.920 strong and also dedicated. 00:11:16.920 --> 00:11:21.274 Haiti, January 2010. 00:11:21.274 --> 00:11:23.109 The pain. 00:11:23.109 --> 00:11:27.112 People buried under 30 million tons of rubble. 00:11:27.112 --> 00:11:29.261 Overwhelming. 00:11:29.261 --> 00:11:31.139 Three hundred forty Cuban doctors 00:11:31.139 --> 00:11:33.580 were already on the ground long term. 00:11:33.580 --> 00:11:35.983 More were on their way. Many more were needed. 00:11:35.983 --> 00:11:39.227 At ELAM, students worked round the clock 00:11:39.227 --> 00:11:42.445 to contact 2,000 graduates. 00:11:42.445 --> 00:11:45.629 As a result, hundreds arrived in Haiti, 00:11:45.629 --> 00:11:49.926 27 countries' worth, from Mali in the Sahara 00:11:49.926 --> 00:11:54.414 to St. Lucia, Bolivia, Chile and the USA. 00:11:54.414 --> 00:11:57.710 They spoke easily to each other in Spanish 00:11:57.710 --> 00:12:00.399 and listened to their patients in Creole 00:12:00.399 --> 00:12:02.525 thanks to Haitian medical students 00:12:02.525 --> 00:12:04.752 flown in from ELAM in Cuba. 00:12:04.752 --> 00:12:06.440 Many stayed for months, 00:12:06.440 --> 00:12:09.218 even through the cholera epidemic. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:09.218 --> 00:12:11.558 Hundreds of Haitian graduates 00:12:11.558 --> 00:12:14.280 had to pick up the pieces, 00:12:14.280 --> 00:12:16.294 overcome their own heartbreak, 00:12:16.294 --> 00:12:18.160 and then pick up the burden 00:12:18.160 --> 00:12:21.728 of building a new public health system for Haiti. 00:12:21.728 --> 00:12:24.225 Today, with aid of organizations and governments 00:12:24.225 --> 00:12:26.778 from Norway to Cuba to Brazil, 00:12:26.778 --> 00:12:29.004 dozens of new health centers have been built, 00:12:29.004 --> 00:12:32.575 staffed, and in 35 cases, headed 00:12:32.575 --> 00:12:36.497 by ELAM graduates. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:36.497 --> 00:12:38.365 Yet the Haitian story 00:12:38.365 --> 00:12:40.424 also illustrates some of the bigger problems 00:12:40.424 --> 00:12:42.640 faced in many countries. 00:12:42.640 --> 00:12:44.384 Take a look: 00:12:44.384 --> 00:12:50.166 748 Haitian graduates by 2012, when cholera struck, 00:12:50.166 --> 00:12:53.912 nearly half working in the public health sector 00:12:53.912 --> 00:12:55.983 but one quarter unemployed, 00:12:55.983 --> 00:13:02.093 and 110 had left Haiti altogether. 00:13:02.093 --> 00:13:04.861 So in the best case scenarios, 00:13:04.861 --> 00:13:06.731 these graduates are staffing 00:13:06.731 --> 00:13:09.980 and thus strengthening public health systems, 00:13:09.980 --> 00:13:13.159 where often they're the only doctors around. 00:13:13.159 --> 00:13:15.950 In the worst cases, there are simply not enough jobs 00:13:15.950 --> 00:13:17.592 in the public health sector, 00:13:17.592 --> 00:13:20.158 where most poor people are treated, 00:13:20.158 --> 00:13:22.957 not enough political will, not enough resources, 00:13:22.957 --> 00:13:25.163 not enough anything — 00:13:25.163 --> 00:13:28.616 just too many patients with no care. 00:13:28.616 --> 00:13:31.600 The grads face pressure from their families too, 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:33.903 desperate to make ends meet, 00:13:33.903 --> 00:13:36.479 so when there are no public sector jobs, 00:13:36.479 --> 00:13:39.100 these new MDs decamp into private practice, 00:13:39.100 --> 00:13:43.115 or go abroad to send money home. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:43.115 --> 00:13:46.300 Worst of all, in some countries, 00:13:46.300 --> 00:13:49.236 medical societies influence accreditation bodies 00:13:49.236 --> 00:13:52.251 not to honor the ELAM degree, 00:13:52.251 --> 00:13:54.568 fearful these grads will take their jobs 00:13:54.568 --> 00:13:58.123 or reduce their patient loads and income. 00:13:58.123 --> 00:14:01.104 It's not a question of competencies. 00:14:01.104 --> 00:14:03.612 Here in the USA, the California Medical Board 00:14:03.612 --> 00:14:07.212 accredited the school after rigorous inspection, 00:14:07.212 --> 00:14:09.260 and the new physicians are making good 00:14:09.260 --> 00:14:11.451 on Cuba's big bet, 00:14:11.451 --> 00:14:13.262 passing their boards and accepted 00:14:13.262 --> 00:14:15.647 into highly respected residencies 00:14:15.647 --> 00:14:19.738 from New York to Chicago to New Mexico. 00:14:19.738 --> 00:14:22.363 Two hundred strong, they're coming 00:14:22.363 --> 00:14:24.748 back to the United States energized, 00:14:24.748 --> 00:14:27.335 and also dissatisfied. 00:14:27.335 --> 00:14:28.966 As one grad put it, 00:14:28.966 --> 00:14:32.420 in Cuba, "We are trained to provide quality care 00:14:32.420 --> 00:14:34.422 with minimal resources, 00:14:34.422 --> 00:14:36.998 so when I see all the resources we have here, 00:14:36.998 --> 00:14:39.160 and you tell me that's not possible, 00:14:39.160 --> 00:14:41.330 I know it's not true. 00:14:41.330 --> 00:14:46.949 Not only have I seen it work, I've done the work." NOTE Paragraph 00:14:46.949 --> 00:14:48.910 ELAM's graduates, 00:14:48.910 --> 00:14:52.427 some from right here in D.C. and Baltimore, 00:14:52.427 --> 00:14:55.595 have come from the poorest of the poor 00:14:55.595 --> 00:14:57.928 to offer health, education 00:14:57.928 --> 00:15:00.844 and a voice to their communities. 00:15:00.844 --> 00:15:03.496 They've done the heavy lifting. 00:15:03.496 --> 00:15:05.510 Now we need to do our part 00:15:05.510 --> 00:15:09.127 to support the 23,000 and counting, 00:15:09.127 --> 00:15:10.481 All of us — 00:15:10.481 --> 00:15:14.115 foundations, residency directors, press, 00:15:14.115 --> 00:15:17.299 entrepreneurs, policymakers, people — 00:15:17.299 --> 00:15:19.452 need to step up. 00:15:19.452 --> 00:15:21.443 We need to do much more globally 00:15:21.443 --> 00:15:24.382 to give these new doctors the opportunity 00:15:24.382 --> 00:15:26.775 to prove their mettle. 00:15:26.775 --> 00:15:27.778 They need to be able 00:15:27.778 --> 00:15:30.982 to take their countries' licensing exams. 00:15:30.982 --> 00:15:33.930 They need jobs in the public health sector 00:15:33.930 --> 00:15:35.685 or in nonprofit health centers 00:15:35.685 --> 00:15:39.532 to put their training and commitment to work. 00:15:39.532 --> 00:15:41.815 They need the chance to be 00:15:41.815 --> 00:15:46.674 the doctors their patients need. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:46.674 --> 00:15:48.531 To move forward, 00:15:48.531 --> 00:15:51.523 we may have to find our way back 00:15:51.523 --> 00:15:53.706 to that pediatrician who would 00:15:53.706 --> 00:15:55.393 knock on my family's door 00:15:55.393 --> 00:15:58.579 on the South Side of Chicago when I was a kid, 00:15:58.579 --> 00:16:00.489 who made house calls, 00:16:00.489 --> 00:16:03.380 who was a public servant. 00:16:03.380 --> 00:16:05.203 These aren't such new ideas 00:16:05.203 --> 00:16:07.565 of what medicine should be. 00:16:07.565 --> 00:16:10.290 What's new is the scaling up 00:16:10.290 --> 00:16:13.673 and the faces of the doctors themselves: 00:16:13.673 --> 00:16:17.130 an ELAM graduate is more likely to be a she 00:16:17.130 --> 00:16:19.060 than a he; 00:16:19.060 --> 00:16:21.987 In the Amazon, Peru or Guatemala, 00:16:21.987 --> 00:16:24.338 an indigenous doctor; 00:16:24.338 --> 00:16:27.352 in the USA, a doctor of color 00:16:27.352 --> 00:16:29.748 who speaks fluent Spanish. 00:16:29.748 --> 00:16:33.427 She is well trained, can be counted on, 00:16:33.427 --> 00:16:37.071 and shares the face and culture of her patients, 00:16:37.071 --> 00:16:40.480 and she deserves our support surely, 00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:44.946 because whether by subway, mule, or canoe, 00:16:44.946 --> 00:16:47.944 she is teaching us to walk the walk. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:47.944 --> 00:16:53.514 Thank you. (Applause)