Love without borders, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital builds a benchmark of public health care in Central America

        Far Eastern Memorial Hospital has paid close attention to international humanitarian assistance, in order to improve the health and well-being of people around the world, it actively responds to the government's public health and medical assistance policy, to promote the friendship between Taiwan and its friendly nations. Among them, the "basic prevention and treatment system construction project of Belize chronic renal failure" has become the first public health assistance project in central and South America and the Caribbean.

        

        Look around the world, medical aid breaks the borders

        

        Belize has a population of about 370000 and a national average life span of 74 years. According to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) survey, the obesity population in this country is as high as 60%. The incidence of hypertension and diabetes in adults is 28.7% and 13.1% respectively, which lead to the prevalence of chronic kidney disease. Due to the lack of local medical and care capacity, uneven distribution of resources, lack of public health knowledge, and the inability of government to effectively establish a prevention and control system, the death rate of kidney disease remains high.

        

        In 2013, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital sent a medical investigation team to Belize for the first time to understand the actual situation. Since 2016, it has implemented the three-year "Belize basic prevention and treatment system construction plan for chronic renal failure", which includes strengthening public health capacity for chronic diseases through education promotion; building professional chronic disease care capacity; strengthening Belize health information system to make it have the function of tracking and management of chronic disease cases, and putting forward the epidemiological statistical analysis report, so as to detect chronic renal failure patients as early as possible through regular health screening, and to reduce their mortality with treatment.

        

        Sustainability development, build a stable prevention and control system

        

        In the early stage of the project, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital paid an active visit to the Ministry of Health of Belize, and urged the Bureau of statistics and the Ministry of Health to sign a memorandum of cooperation, launched the questionnaire and screening of Belize chronic disease and kidney disease, and logged the data into the chronic disease case tracking management function jointly developed by the Ministry of Information and the project team to assist the major hospitals of Belize to follow up the cases in the future. On the other hand, at the beginning, Belize Nursing Association only recognized the training course certificate of dialysis nurses in the United States and the Caribbean. After the team of Far Eastern Memorial Hospital visited Belize Kidney Association, Nursing and Midwifery Association for several times and showed that Taiwan's excellent performance in dialysis treatment, they successfully introduced Taiwan's "dialysis nurse certification mechanism" into the country to construct dialysis nurses certification process and training course planning, successfully becoming the training place recognized by Belize. This is not only a breakthrough of Belize in dialysis nursing cultivation, but also the export of the successful experience of Far Eastern Memorial Hospital and Taiwan, which was an important example of sustainability development.

        

        At present, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital has completed training courses for 11 Belize trainees. Through the promotion of seed teacher system, by June 2019, 17 doctors have completed the advanced course training course of kidney disease prevention and case management, 101 doctors have completed the basic course training of kidney disease care, 20 nurses have completed the training of kidney washing, 305 local personnel have completed the training of public health promoter. In addition, 201 medical staff participated in case management system training, forming a strong health education network. In order to ensure the correctness of the direction of the health education, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital has also sent 21 staffs in medical, nutrition and information department to carry out epidemiological investigation, external information system construction, and clinical training and supervision tasks, and completed three times of free diagnosis service and medical material donation. Up to now, 17914 people have received the preliminary report of kidney disease health education and epidemiological statistical analysis.

        

        

        Adjust measures to local conditions, integrate communication and expand benefits

        

        Behind these fruitful achievements, we have gone through numerous difficulties and efforts. The first is the difference between cultural estrangement and medical system. After European immigration, slave trade, coolie of India and China, political and religious refugees from West Asia and the Middle East, Central and South America has become the most complex cultural and geographical region in the world. With the differentiation of social classes, it is very difficult to implement and expand the public health care plan, even to study the previous period. In addition, in Belize there is neither a complete set of national epidemiological survey, nor a long-term prognosis tracking mechanism and database of chronic kidney disease, which made it own insufficient ability to analyze kidney disease and policies can’t effectively intervene as well.

        

        In order to break through the dilemma, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital integrated internal and external resources to form a strong team of transnational, cross organizational and cross medical units. It not only provided medical help, but also devoted itself to optimizing processes and systems, developing a set of plans suitable for the local environment and long-term implementation, so as to improve the health and well-being of Belize people.

        

        What's more, the success of this project has led Central and South American countries to attach great importance to the prevention and treatment of chronic kidney disease. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), referring to this case, has promoted the prevention and treatment of kidney disease in Central America, and Taipei Veterans General Hospital has also followed the example to launch the construction project of basic prevention and treatment system of chronic kidney disease in The Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, which has become the benchmarking of many projects in central and South America. In 2018, with the recognition of the “Third International Medical Model Award” of the International Association for the Promotion of Medical and Health, the “Contribution Award” of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the invitation to participate in the world Health Assembly (WHA) off-site meeting, the international medical team of Far Eastern Memorial Hospital continued to expand and launched the “Belize medical imaging system enhancement project” and “Nicaragua chronic kidney disease prevention and control system project” which not only improves the visibility of the international community, but also carries forward the good tradition of 70 years' enthusiasm for public welfare of Far Eastern Group, and continues to expand its social influence.