For Immediate Release: January 20, 2000
Contact: Hali Wickner (603) 650-1520
Print Version
Dartmouth Medical School Kosovo Project Begins
Hanover, N.H. -- Dartmouth Medical School hosts visitors from Kosovo's medical school January 22-29 to launch a cross-cultural program that will help the Kosovars rebuild their medical education and health care systems.
Mazllum Belegu, MD, dean of the Pristina University Medical School, and medical students Melihate Mustafa and Valbon Ajazaj will be DMS guests to begin the DMS Kosovo project.
You are invited to interview Dean Belegu and the medical students about the health care challenges the country faces or to cover portions of their visit. Please call to make further arrangements. You are also welcome to cover the following:
Monday, Jan. 24
8-9 a.m.Welcome by Dartmouth Medical School Dean John Baldwin, M.D.Faculty Conference Room, 1 Rope Ferry Road
7 p.m.Dartmouth International Health Group Forum on Kosovo Challenges
DHMC, Auditorium G
Thursday, Jan. 27
9-10 a.m. Primary Care and Family Practice
Cottage Hospital, Woodsville, NH (Call Carolyn Shapiro-Wall at 747-9000)
Background - DMS Kosovo Project
The Dartmouth Medical School Kosovo project was established by DMS Dean John Baldwin after he traveled to Pristina last summer at the invitation of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to explore opportunities for Dartmouth to help revitalize Kosovo's only medical school and hospital.
Former DMS Dean James Strickler, who co-chairs the board of directors of the IRC, heads the DMS-Kosovo project. "The IRC has a strong presence in Kosovo - which faces considerable health care challenges - and it has facilitated the liaison with DMS," says Strickler, professor of community and family medicine, emeritus. Through the project, which is supported by a gift from the Blessing Way Foundation of New York, DMS medical faculty and students will exchange information to assess needs, reorganize students and faculty, and reestablish a curriculum. Strickler also heads the planning committee for the Kosovo guests.
The visit encompasses meetings with Dartmouth medical faculty, students and administrators, discussion of medical education - including admissions, undergraduate, graduate and continuing medical education; tours of the Dartmouth campus, the medical school and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and community-based primary care programs.
