"Catastrophic debt" and the opportunity to study medicine alongside students of similar socioeconomic backgrounds have led some minority and low-income medical school students to seek out schooling opportunities in Cuba, The New Yorker reports.
One such opportunity is the Latin American School of Medicine, or ELAM, in Havana. Established by the Cuban government in 1999, the school aims to recruit students from low-income and marginalized communities across the globe, who upon graduation are encouraged to return to their home countries and practice medicine. Officials created the international medical school after a series of natural disasters decimated vulnerable populations in Central America and the Caribbean, and former Cuban President Fidel Castro mandated Americans, Haitians and students from poor African nations would be allowed to attend the medical school free of charge.
The inaugural class of U.S. students began classes at ELAM in 2001, one year after a delegation from the Congressional Black Caucus met with Cuban officials to discuss the need for physicians in rural black communities across the U.S., according to the report. While black and Latino students represent approximately 6 percent of medical school graduates annually in the U.S., nearly 50 percent of ELAM's U.S. graduates are black, while roughly 33 percent are Latino.
Nimeka Phillip, MD, an American who graduated from the school in 2015, told The New Yorker reporter Anakwa Dwamena that attending ELAM offered her the opportunity to study medicine without incurring the costs associated with medical school in the U.S. She took and passed the U.S. medical licensing exam in March 2014, and was accepted into a family medicine residency program in Hendersonville, N.C., in 2016, according to the report.
"It's one thing to recruit people that have high skills. More unique is when you find people that really have the passion and heart for taking care of underserved patient populations. These are the people needed to close the health-disparities gap," the director of Dr. Phillip's residency program in North Carolina told The New Yorker.
To access the full report, click here.