Caymanian med students take up fellowships in India
Taneil Lee
(CNS Local Life): Four Caymanian college students will soon be on their way to India to begin a month-long fellowship at the Narayana Health facility, founded by Dr Devi Shetty and on which Health City Cayman Islands is modelled. The four students, who leave 3 June and were selected from the highest performing alumni of the 2016 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) programme, will participate in the 2017 Thompson-Chandi Fellowship in Medical Studies.
Alexandra Anglin (Brunel University), Taneil Lee (University College of the Cayman Islands), Stewart Watt (University of Toronto) and Brandon DaCosta (Florida International University) were awarded fellowships in cardio-thoracic surgery, oncology, orthopaedics and neurology, respectively.
Health City will pay all travel and accommodation expenses and also provide a stipend for each fellow.
“It is such an honour to be chosen,” said Lee. “I am looking forward to everything I will learn at Narayana Health.”
DaCosta was equally enthusiastic. “My goal is to become the first Caymanian neurologist and I am excited to deepen my knowledge of this field by working with the world-class consultants at NH,” he said.
Brandon DaCosta
“We created the fellowship to offer our highest achieving alumni the opportunity to experience tertiary healthcare at Narayana Health,” said Gene Thompson, project director of Health City and sponsor of the Healthcare Explorers programme under which the fellowship falls.
Health City CEO and director of medical services Dr Chandy Abraham noted the importance of developing young Caymanians in the medical field. “It is vital to get Caymanian students interested in the sciences and on track for a career in the medicine,” he said. “This fellowship is an important step in that direction, and is sure to provide the four students with an intense immersion in the Narayana Health model of health care.
“Health City Cayman Islands is a dedicated teaching institution and our physicians take a supportive role in the future of the Cayman Islands medical fraternity. A research facility and a medical university are among future planned phases, as we seek to further establish medical tourism as a pillar of the Cayman Islands economy. We will need Caymanian health care professionals to be part of the foundation of this success.”
Charles D. Bush, Health City manager – mission integration & spiritual care, added, “The fellowship at Narayana Health will challenge the fellows to step out of their comfort zones and quickly become active participants in an interdisciplinary team, in order to flourish.
“It will immerse them in precisely the type of environment they will find at Health City Cayman Islands when they complete their studies.”
The Thompson-Chandi Fellowship is part of Health City’s community outreach mandate. The Healthcare Explorers programme provides contextual medical and STEM education opportunities for Caymanian high school and college students to prepare for careers in healthcare. Since its inception in 2014, 650 students have taken part.
Students are given the opportunity to acquire experience working in departments that include cardiothoracic, the laboratory, the intensive care unit, anaesthesia, orthopaedic, nursing and administration.
Category: Education, Medical and Health
This is an awesome opportunity for the emerging physicians and surgeons. I do hope an endeavour like this will soon spread like wildfire through the caribbean community.
Great opportunity! Congrats!
Congrats to these young Caymanians! What a wonderful opportunity!