Letters

Global Health

I enjoyed Andrea Crawford’s article describing the global medicine initiatives at the medical school [2015 P&S Annual Report]. To offer a more complete history, the medical school has created overseas experiences for its students in the past. As a graduate of P&S in 1967, I spent three months in Liberia and east Africa. Dr. Harold Brown, the head of the parasitology department, arranged rotations for 10 percent of the fourth-year class in Africa and South America. This was an experience that has created a sustained interest throughout my surgical career working in Haiti since 1969 and in east Africa since my retirement in 2008. Dr. Brown needs to be recognized for his leadership and encouragement that began more than 50 years ago.

Michael Curci’67
Via email

Editor’s Note: Read more about Dr. Brown in the “Faculty Remembered” column (Spring 2002 issue), in an article about the launch of the Harold Brown Fellowship by the Class of 1953 to support international electives (Winter 2004 issue), and in an account of students participating in the Millennium Villages project (Winter 2008 issue). All magazine issues are archived online and accessible through www.columbiamedicinemagazine.org.

Comic Relief, Canadian Style

As a rare Canadian alumnus of P&S, I very much enjoyed the cartoon by Dr. Schwartz of the Royal Canadian Mountie saying “Eh” on physical exam [Spring/Summer 2015 issue]. But I wonder if I was the only reader to get the joke?

Robert D. Wagman’81
Via email