2007 GOLDEN APPLE HONOREES

Suzanne Brown, CRNA

Ms. Brown is currently on staff with the anesthesia department of Northwest Permanente located in Portland, Oregon. Ms. Brown was selected for this recognition for her work designing and implementing nurse anesthesia educational programs at two hospitals in Cambodia, the Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap, and the Sihanouk Hospital Center of Hope in Phnom Penh. Her involvement with these facilities began in 2003 when she conducted a site assessment. Appointed to serve as program director, Ms. Brown oversaw the recruitment of more than a dozen volunteers who have completed more than 20 assignments. As a result of the training, support and mentoring provided by HVO volunteers, the quality of anesthesia care at both hospitals has greatly improved. Local anesthesia providers now offer post-op pain management as a component of the anesthesia care that patients receive. In addition, the local anesthesia providers have themselves initiated training programs for their colleagues at nearby hospitals and clinics. Lois Krug, CRNA, CHE, RN, chair of the nurse anesthesia steering committee states, “Suzanne works diligently with the local anesthesia providers and hospital administrators to coordinate the efforts of the volunteers in order to establish an effective and worthwhile training program.”

Glen Crawford, MD

Dr. Crawford is a partner with Seacoast Orthopaedics in Newburyport, Massachusetts and the Vice President of Anna Jaques Hospital's Medical Staff. Dr. Crawford received this award in recognition of his dedication to orthopaedic education overseas. Dr. Crawford has provided vital orthopaedic training to seven different HVO programs over the past 17 years. He has gone on month-long assignments to Bhutan (twice), Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Indonesia, South Africa, Tanzania and Vietnam. He effectively demonstrated and taught appropriate new surgical techniques in the operating room, as well as provided clinical and didactic training to countless medical students, residents and others. Dr. Crawford has also engaged local health care professionals in discussions about their role in serving as leaders and advocates within their community. Dr. Merlin Anderson, program director for Ethiopia states, “Dr. Crawford is a volunteer who goes above and beyond the teaching of orthopaedics by becoming truly engaged with the trainees at the site as a teacher and a mentor.”

Lena Dohlman, MD, MPH

Dr. Dohlman is on staff at the Department of Anesthesia & Critical Care at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Cambridge Health Alliance. Dr. Dohlman was selected for this honor in recognition of her work in designing and delivering primary trauma courses as part of HVO's anesthesia program in Vietnam. The trauma courses included practical workshops for surgeons and anesthesiologists, the first of its kind to be held in Vietnam. Dr. Dohlman has delivered these trauma courses during four separate assignments to Vietnam. She also lectured on regional anesthesia at the 14th Association of South-East Asian Nations Congress of Anesthesiologists in Hanoi, Vietnam. Her commitment to the Vietnam site has resulted in better medical outcomes for local anesthesiologists and colleagues, all of whom have benefited from her lectures, training courses and practical handouts on regional anesthesia techniques. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Chung, the on-site coordinator of the program who nominated Dr. Dohlman stated, “Dr. Dohlman's devotion and perseverance has changed the way we train our successors, their skills have greatly improved.”

Marvin Godner, MD

Dr. Godner is currently retired and resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dr. Godner was nominated for this honor by the staff at the Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC) located in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Over the past five years Dr. Godner has fulfilled one-month volunteer assignments every year with the pediatric program at AHC. He is known at the site for his thorough and engaging teaching style. Much of his work has been with the junior doctors at AHC where he has focused on bringing new ways of assessing medical conditions, expanding diagnostic possibilities, and interacting with patients. Through his efforts, junior doctors are better equipped to effectively tackle developing medical cases. In fact, the on-site staff noted his lectures had an immediate impact as the junior doctors quickly applied what they learned to how they treated their patients.

Martin Hobdell, BDS, PhD, MA

Dr. Hobdell is currently a visiting professor with the Department of Epidemiology & Public Health at the University College London. Dr. Hobdell was nominated in recognition of his leadership in creating and implementing graduate level certificate and masters training programs in dental public health at the University of Health Sciences in Cambodia and at the Faculty for Odonto-Stomatology in Vietnam. Dr. Hobdell, an internationally known expert in oral health, developed, in consultation with local faculty, a dental public health curriculum to be taught over a two-year period, mainly by visiting faculty. In addition, Dr. Hobdell served as the HVO program director for both sites, coordinating the assignments of over 20 HVO volunteer faculty, evaluating student progress as well as participating in the training of the dentistry faculty and provincial dental officers. Dr. Hobdell's vision and leadership have contributed to the development of enhanced dental public health research and educational capacity in both Vietnam and Cambodia. “[Dr. Hobdell's] enthusiasm is contagious and appears inexhaustible,” states Dr. Sally Hewett, chair of the HVO dentistry steering committee. “His connection to the local faculty and students is warm and remarkable. According to testimonies from peers, it's evident that Dr. Hobdell is admired, respected and loved by the dentistry community abroad.”

Christopher Johnson, MD

Dr. Johnson is currently in private practice and a senior partner with Professional Orthopaedic Associates in Tinton Falls, New Jersey. Dr. Johnson is recognized for his volunteer efforts with HVO's hand surgery program in Honduras. Over the past four years, Dr. Johnson has made six trips to Honduras to teach residents in the hand surgery program at the Hospital Escuela. He provided expertise and guidance to the residents and faculty on a range of hand pathologies including some relatively uncommon hand operations, such as thumb reconstructions or toe transfers. Dr. Johnson provided lectures at conferences to discuss the various hand surgical problems that were being tackled by his fellow surgeons. Dr. Luis Gonzalez, the on-site coordinator for the Honduras program who nominated Dr. Johnson for this award states, “Dr. Johnson has been the invaluable to the country's hand surgery program, through his patience with our trainees and the strong relationships he has built with all those involved. I believe with continued assistance from volunteers such as Dr. Johnson, we will be able to revolutionize the treatment of hand surgery in the whole country.”

William Laney, MD

Dr. Laney is an orthopaedic surgeon on staff at the Orthopaedic and Fracture Clinic, which has offices in Faribault, Northfield, Mankato and Hutchinson, Minnesota. Dr. Laney was nominated for this award by Dr. Chris McConnachie, the on-site coordinator for the orthopaedic training program at Mthatha General Hospital in South Africa. Dr. Laney was honored with this award for his overall dedication to the orthopaedic training program, where he has volunteered on seven separate occasions. During his assignments, he held x-ray teaching conferences with interns and junior medical officers. He also served as an invaluable surgical mentor to all members of the staff. In addition to the time he spends volunteering in South Africa, Dr. Laney is the volunteer program director, coordinating the teaching activities of all HVO orthopaedic volunteers who travel to Mthatha. Dr. McConnachie notes in his nomination, “Dr. Laney has improved the quality of patient care through his clinical and didactic instructions. Many of his colleagues are stirred by his infectious enthusiasm for orthopaedics.”

John McFadden, MD

Dr. McFadden is a hand, upper extremity and microvascular surgeon on staff at the Charleston Hand Group/UMA in Charleston South, Carolina. Dr. McFadden was selected for this honor due to his dedication to the HVO hand surgery program in Honduras. Since 2004, Dr. McFadden has completed volunteer assignments with this program on a yearly basis. During his assignments, Dr. McFadden provides expert treatment to hand pathology patients at the Hospital Escuela. In addition to providing high quality patient care, Dr. McFadden also instructs the local plastic surgery training team and meets with them yearly to track their improvements. His knowledge and innovative techniques have honed the skills of the surgical team, while also exposing and training them in new surgeries, which otherwise would have never been performed in Honduras or even Central America. Dr. Luis Gonzalez, the on-site coordinator for the hand surgery program described Dr. McFadden's efforts by stating, “I believe he has been a cornerstone for the development of our hand surgery program; for his volunteer work is based on the adage of teaching a person how to fish, so that person will be able to feed himself for life.”

Puthucode Rajamani, MS

Mr. Rajamani is a Senior Manager of Corporate Regulatory Compliance at Pfizer Inc in New York with over 30 years of experience in research, manufacturing and quality in the pharmaceutical industry. Mr. Rajamani was selected for this recognition by his peers for his volunteer work during his assignment in India. In 2006, Mr. Rajamani was selected by Pfizer Inc and Health Volunteers Overseas to serve as a Pfizer Global Health Fellow for 3 months with the Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore, India. His work focused on assessing and improving the quality and manufacturing systems in the hospital pharmacy. Additionally, the CMC Hospital Pharmacy's Senior Management requested his assistance in obtaining certification for their facility from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Mr. Rajamani was also instrumental in upgrading the skills and knowledge of the hospital staff in the area of quality systems for pharmaceuticals, as well as providing training, workshop sessions, and technical presentations. He provided over 25 technical presentations and workshop sessions to the CMC hospital employees during his 3 month assignment. A fellow colleague noted that, “he is regarded by the hospital staff and management as someone who has been most effective in helping to bring positive change to the CMC hospital.”

Wingfield Rehmus, MD, MPH

Dr. Rehmus is employed by the Palauan Ministry of Health and works as a dermatologist at the National Hospital. She also serves as a consultant on strategic planning for the Bureau of Public Health. Dr. Rehmus was selected for this honor by her peers for her assistance in designing and implementing one of HVO's first dermatology training programs located in Palau. The Palau program began in 2004 and Dr. Rehmus took on the role of program director, coordinating the efforts of volunteer dermatologists to the site along with fulfilling several volunteer assignments to Palau herself. The HVO training program brought dermatology instruction to the island for the first time. Before the arrival of the program, the Family Medicine residency in Palau lacked both dermatology training and an on-site dermatologist. Today, due to the contributions of Dr. Rehmus, the physicians are receiving superb guidance in dermatology and the once-neglected area of skin diseases is now being treated in a better fashion. Dr. Rehmus became so captivated with the program that she decided to relocate to Palau to become a full-time teacher with HVO's dermatology program where she instructs physician residents from Palau as well as several small Pacific nations.