Monday, November 15, 2010

Data Collection is Complete

The team is back in the U.S. and the data collection for the CARE III research project is completed. The team were able to complete 420 surveys over the course of 7-days of data collection. This is really great and will provide a good sample size for our research study.

The next step is to send the completed surveys to the University of North Carolina-Wilmington for compilation and data review. We hope to have the first sets of data evaluated sometime in the early Spring. Our goal is to submit our research for publication sometime in the fall of 2011.

Speaking of publishing data - we are submitting the research from our CARE I study for publication in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. Look for an article to run in late winter of 2011. That is if our submission is accepted for publication. Keep your fingers.

A very big thank you to all of the volunteers who helped with the CARE III data collection. You are amazing and we owe you so much. THANK YOU!

Keeping checking out the HBI Blog - big things are in the works for HBI in the coming months. Until then, thank you for all of your support.


Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Data Collection Day 4

Photo: The rural communities of the Colca Valley.

Photo: A beautiful old facade in the community of Yanque.

The team continues in the Colca Valley until Friday, November 12. Updates from our Director of Operations indicate that we are moving forward with visits to a total of 13 smaller villages in the valley. Ben tells me that things are going great and he feels we are more than meeting the expected (hoped for) numbers for the research project.

We should have a complete update on the progress of the CARE III Survey project early next week. Keep checking the Blog for updates.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Why study healthcare access in Peru?

Photo: The lunar landscape of the high Peruvian mountain communities.

Everyone we have talked with has a story about their inability to gain access to the healthcare services they self define as needing. Equally, our team has heard (for many years) that healthcare access, specifically access to medical providers and medical specialist, is really lacking in many parts of Peru. However, and this is the most critical part of the "why" we are doing research studies in Peru, few studies actually exist to support such anecdote or suspicion.

Our project is designed to gain a greater foothold in understanding the care delivery needs of isolated, marginalized and underserved communities. We want to take the anecdotes, the assumptions, and the beliefs that are pervasive and provide some firm data to better meet the evolving challenges of Peru.

With an expected 8% economic growth in the next year, Peru is a vastly changing environment. The Peru that HBI started working in some 17-years ago is a very different world. In an attempt to best meet the needs of underserved communities, we need to be continuously gaining a greater understanding of their needs and challenges.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Day 3 - CARE III

Photo: Dinner in Arequipa at "Tinto and Asado"

Photo: HBI's Peru Country Director - Daniel Bueno Rojas

I am back in Lima awaiting a flight to the U.S. - but the data collection continues. The team spent their morning hours surveying the principle Colca Valley town of Chivay. Our Director of Operations (Ben Grass) told me that things went great and they were able to survey the entire community.

The group will be surveying the rest of the week and hopes to complete 500 surveys. My fingers are crossed. The more surveys we can complete the greater the value of our research. At this point, we just need to keep plugging away. The data will speak for itself once we have it all collected.

I just had a really interesting meeting with Dr. Francisco Cisnero and our Peru Country Director (Dr. Daniel Bueno Rojas). Dr. Francisco, an ophthamologist who was trained in the Dominican Republic, just completed a fellowship training in Colombia in cataract procedures. His family has run a clinic in Lima (Nahui Clinic) for a number of years. They are one of the most respected ophthamology centers in all of Peru.

Francisco has taken over the directorship of an NGO that works with cataract and eye surgeries for impoverished communities. He wants to ensure that every patient who needs surgery in Peru can get the surgery - regardless of their ability to pay. He told me that it is assumed that on average there are 3,000 cataract cases per 1,000,000 patients. Ideally, a country should be able to absorb this 3,000 patient case load.

This "ideal" is predicted on having a fully trained and motivated workforce. In Chile, as Francisco told me, the medical community is able to attend to all of the eye surgery needs of their populous. In Peru and Bolivia, the number of cases that the medical system is able to handle is well below 1,000. Francisco and his NGO are working with the Clinton Foundation to provide cataract surgeries to patients in need.

Francisco has a clinic in the Magdelana neighborhood of Lima. He has great desires for the clinic and contacted HBI to see if we can help to connect him with other organizations or projects working in Peru who can help to expand their services and increase his ability to help the poor.

This is an exciting opportunity and I am hopeful for whatever may arise. It is amazing how much can come when we work together. More to come.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Data Collection Day 2

Photo: Yes, even though the photo is blurry, the altitude is correct - 15, 875 Ft!

Photo: One of our new friends.

Photo: The survey team hard at work.

I am back in Arequipa after spending almost three days (and what seems like countless hours on buses and in shuttle vans) in the Colca Valley town of Chivay. Our team of researchers have collected 2-full days of data and far exceeded our initial expectations.

The team is doing fantastic. Our biggest challenge has not been the lack of a motivated survey team, they are all fantastic, or a lack of interested research participants, only one person opted out of the survey. Our greatest challenge has been the complexity of the stories we are hearing.

Person after person has incredible stories to share about their lives in one of the most remote areas in Latin America. From spousal violence to alcoholism, everyone we have talked with has been affected by violence and abuse. As one of our team members said, "It is really hard not to want to just stop asking the questions and start trying to 'fix' everything."

Our goal in this project is to collect the sort of meaningful data that will allow for a more concerted approach to services delivery. If our first two days of data collection holds true - there is no lack of service need in the communities . . . there may only be a lack of time to truly help in all of the areas of need.

One story - "Isabel" (not her real name) has lived in the small town of Coporaque for her entire life, sans a short period in Lima. She has never been married nor had any children. When we met her on the streets of this small high altitude town (population 500), she was just going out to tend to her small plot of land. She told us that one of the things she would most like to see for her community is a "meeting or group" that brings together woman her age who are single and live alone. "We all need support up here," she told us, " and for those of us without families that support comes from other people our age." Isabel is 75-years old and just as spry as any 35-year old. She lives in a mountain community at over 12,000 feet above sea level and did not complete secondary school (she left school in the equivalence of the 9th grade).

I am just so inspired when I meet people like Isabel. People who are seeking to create their own change. I am hopeful that the data we receive from our research can help to identify more ideas and opportunities for people like Isabel.

Stay tuned for more updates as the team collects data over the next week. Thank you, as always, for all of your support!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Day 1 in Peru

Photo: The lonley Lima airport at 2 a.m.

Photo: Bleary eyed, but ready to go. My first meeting is in just a couple of hours.

It doesn't matter how many times I make this trip - sitting in the Lima airport for 5-hours from 1 a.m. until 6 a.m. is dreadful!

Day one and we will be gathering all of our materials together to get ready for the trip to the Colca. We start data collection in the afternoon on Thursday and then begin a full fledged data grab on Friday.

Father Alex and I will be meeting with the Bishop of Arequipa in just a few hours to discuss partnering our resources on the development of a drop-in center for abandon youth in downtown Arequipa. This is a dream for HBI and a project we have loosely been working on for a number of years. Keep your fingers crossed that the meeting goes well.

I am excited for this week and our research project - as we have a great team of volunteers and should be able to get really robust data sets together.

Check out the Blog throughout the next week for frequent updates. Thanks!