Med Students Finish Work in Philippines

A group of 17 Harvard Medical School student returned from the Philippines last week after completing a month-long program deemed too risky for official University sanction, school officials said yesterday.

The second-year students and two faculty members conducted surveys built three health care centers on Mactan Island and gave basic medical advice. They did their work during the sometimes violent Philippine political campaigns, which claimed the lives of more than 100 people.

No Med School Sanction

"We weren't sure that the educational value of the trip justified the risks," said Med School Dean of Students Daniel D. Fetterman. "We didn't want to risk a kidnapping or something."

Fetterman said that although Med School administrators considered the trip too dangerous to take responsibility for it, they did not try to prevent the group from going. "We had to respect student and faculty intelligence. We knew they would go anyway," he said.

By witholding its sanction, the school warned against the trip and removed itself from any related legal burdens, the dean said. According to those who traveled there, however, being on their own made little difference for the program.

"Once we got there, I was amazed at how smoothly the project went," said Associate Professor of Medicine Keith Marton, one of two Med School faculty members who took a leave of absence to participate in the program.

Dr. Paul Epstein, who has previous field experience in Africa, said, "There was no question that we felt absolutely safe. Where there is poverty and injustice, political upheaval is inevitable. The University will have to get used to that fact."

The $45,000 project was funded by U.S. drug companies and an association of Filipino physicians practicing in the United States.

Daniel Dreschler, one of the students in the program, said that the group encountered no direct evidence of unrest or upheaval, although local papers frequently carried stories about slayings of candidates and voters in nearby islands.

"We were in a relatively stable area, and we decided not to involve ourselves politically," said Dreschler. On the day of the first local elections in the country since 1971, the American group went off to another, quieter part of the island, he said.

Since Philippine President Corazon Aquino displaced long-time ruler Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, an insurgent party has stepped up a terrorist campaign, and there has been one attempted coup.

Avoiding the political unrest allowed the students to concentrate on theirmedical work, which Marton said was "extremelysuccessful."

The Harvard group tested 400 people forrespiratory diseases, immunized 70 children,instructed mothers in basic health care, and inthree villages, added buildings that will serve aslocal health centers and pre-schools, said medicalstudent Andrew kanter.

"Usually in the third world, you set goals andachieve 60 percent of them. We exceeded ourexpectations because we accomplished everything,"Kantner said.

The participating students were all members ofthe experimental "New Pathways" program at theMedical School. The model curriculum, which is nowstandard for all incoming Med School students,offers a flexible approach to medical education.

Students said that they were allowed tointegrate preparatory work in tropical medicineand medical survey courses into their studies.

Once in the field, the members of the Harvardgroup said they were pleasantly surprised by thecooperation of Filipinos.

Marton said that not one family showedsuspicion of the Americans or refused to besurveyed. "Anyone doing examinations had a greatfollowing of mothers and children," he said.

Medical student Mel Kohn said, "Six or eightpeople lived in the size of a dorm room, but whenwe would come, they would bring out the best chairthey had for us." Kohn said that many of theMactan Islanders had heard of Harvard, perhapsbecause slain Philippine opposition leader BenignoAquino once studied at the University's Center forInternational Affairs.

Deschler and Marton said that ideally theproject would continue in future years to providemedical data and practical experience for Harvardstudents.

Kantner said, "You can read about tropicalmedicine, but until you experience it, it's justwords. The long term effects of this project willnot be measured in numbers or statistics, but inthe effect on the lives of future Harvardphysicians.