The international surgical outreach organization Doctors On Call, also known as D.O.C., Organization Inc., is dispatching a specialized six-person outreach team and bringing with them over forty-thousand dollars in medical equipment, supplies, and medicines for their first mission to Jamaica at Annotto Bay Hospital located in the parish of St. Mary.

The team will be flown directly to Kingston, leaving Friday April 13, 2001 from New York City. The medical team will then continue to St. Mary. "We are working with a local medical team in the North East Region, and they are lining up cases that will prove challenging for both Annotto Bay and D.O.C's surgical team. This is very important to the people of this area because the reports we are receiving suggests that patients have been on waiting for surgical procedures for months," says Sophia Johnson D.O.C. President and Chair.

The D.O.C. team will be primarily providing general and reconstructive surgical care. As well, the team will focus on the training of personnel, an initiative that invites local doctors to sit in on procedures and learn new techniques. Specialist will concentrate on cases of threatened limb loss to peripheral vascular disease, congenital malformations, intra-abdominal procedures; cysts and tumor removals; goiter's; diabetic foot ulcers and, reconstruction for breast cancer survivors.

"Doctors On Call is truly a leader in providing a bench to bedside approach to surgical outreach," says Dr. Basil Bryan, Jamaican Consul General in New York. "As an organization dedicated to the total management of increasing access to surgery in the Caribbean, we are very supportive of their efforts to assist in this critical area of medicine."

The outreach goods being brought to Jamaica include: antibiotics, surgical supplies such as gloves, disposable gowns, and medical kits containing medication, and surgical equipment. D.O.C. pioneered and engineered such medical kits to further its ability to respond quickly and efficiently upon arrival.

Glendon Henry, M.D., a Jamaican born Medical Director of Harlem Hospital Center in New York, says he was encouraged to donate the much-needed medical supplies. "We are very hopeful that setting up this link with the Caribbean will allow us to promote long term use of appropriate therapies, which can then be used for future involvement in clinical studies of non-communicable diseases, treatment for the earliest onset of these diseases, and we may actually be able to shed valuable light on the causes of these diseases in people of that region."

While in Jamaica, D.O.C.'s General and Vascular surgeon Brian A. Donaldson, M.D., will deliver the first in a series of medical lectures by Doctors On Call at the University of the West Indies (UWI) on Wednesday April 17, 2001. Dr. Donaldson will discuss "Lower Extremity Occlusive Vascular Disease - Current Concepts." The UWI graduate says since graduating in 1984, "Vascular surgery on the lower extremity has undergone tremendous changes, with the introduction of new technology, new concepts and alternative approaches that have revolutionized treatment in the field, and I would like to share this with my colleagues in Jamaica." Dr. Donaldson says his discussion will focus on current managerial concepts including disease etiology prevention, evaluation, pre-qualitative assessments, medical, surgical and endovascular therapies for these diseases in the Caribbean.

In November 2000, D.O.C. sent an exploratory team to six hospitals in Jamaica. At present, the exploratory team is continuing a needs assessment and is preparing for a second mission to Jamaica at Cornwall Regional Hospital located in Montego Bay, in October of this year.


Contact:

Sophia Johnson
646-342-6323
Email: pressinquiry@doc-online.org

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