JUN-A-3
SUGGESTING THE ADDENDA TO THE TRAVEL DYNAMICS SEMINARS AND SYMPOSIA
CRUISE FOR THE FEB/MAR CRUISE I WILL BE LEADING TO DISCUSS MAYAN CULUTRE AND
TROPICAL ECOSYSTEMS IN BELIZE BARRIER REEF AND THE YUCATAN
Thanks for the fax! I got excited about the tour just reading
the barebones of the boiler plate brochure!
You had asked for a
signature and a short bio of about 250 words;
I had sent you the blurb on my book "Out of Assa: Heart of the
Congo" (that will be available during the cruise) and it has some short
bullets in it, as well as the brief bio I have adapted that may be more
appropriate to the intent of the cruise, which I attach herewith:
Brief Bio Sketch for the Cruise Brochure
Glenn W. Geelhoed, MD is a
naturalist, anthropologist, academic surgeon and adventure traveler with
interests in cultural and physical adaptation in differing environments. He has earned eight graduate degrees and
many more blisters from marathons to mountain climbing in exotic settings from
Antarctica to Equatorial Deserts, extensive alpine Himalayan experience, and
explorations in Central African and Amazonian tropical rainforest ecosystems,
while gathering an unbeatable anthology of stories and discoveries with friends
in far places.
Educated in Michigan, Boston
and Washington DC where he is Professor of Surgery, and International Medical
Education, and Microbiology and Tropical Medicine at George Washington
University, he is a member of numerous learned societies, and is a past
president of the Washington Academy of Surgeons. He was selected the James IV
Traveling Scholar of 1986, and inducted into the Academie de Chirurgie de Paris
in 1990, and was appointed Senior Fulbright Scholar for African Regional
Research Programs in 1996. He was named
Humanitarian of the Year by George Magazine in 2000.
He has led medical students,
residents and physicians into clinical experiences in the developing world on
over one hundred medical missions in Africa, Asia, South Pacific and South
America.
From his extensive
experience in many global ecosystems and cultures, he will lead a discussion of
physiologic and metabolic adaptation and the consequences for individuals and
societies of maladaptive responses. From tropical reef ecology in the natural
world to the anthropologic features of the Maya reflected through their
archaeologic relics, patterns of interactive behavior may be learned from
contemporary application. Comparing
these adaptations and cosmologic beliefs to contemporary Inca society and to
our own may help us assess our own health and that of our near neighbors in an
interconnected global community.
You had also asked for
pictures, and I had forwarded a number of them, as well as any number that can
be found on the recent rolls (access attached) from my most recent expeditions
in the last few months to Mindanao, Philippines, Malawi, Dharamsala and Nepal,
as well as a somewhat more formal portrait on the Web Page http://gwu.edu/~gwg on the Brief CV page.
I am scheduled to leave again soon for the Spiti Valley in the
Chang Thang Tibetan Plateau, and will be there for two weeks following June 12,
and, leaving again in mid -July, might be found after July 17 for two weeks in
Ladakh and then three weeks in Lingshed on medical missions in the Himalayas.
You had asked for input on
the letter, for interspersed themes or lecture topics---I attach a brief
abstract on one of the lecture topics on "Endemic Goiter and
Hypothyroidism: Does Iodine Metabolism Explain the Extinction
of the Neandertal by Modern
Hypermetabolic Cro-Magnons?" I
will also discuss "Geographic Medicine" and "Wilderness
Adaptations" and "Ask Not What Kind of Disease Does this Patient Have---But,
What Kind of Patient Has this Disease!"
"Nutrition and Development" is another topic that I will be
discussing.
For many of these I will try
to keep it as informal as possible to encourage discussion; for others I will
carry with me a carrousel or two of illustrative slides from many parts of the
world, and will also carry CD's of images that might be used in the talks.
The places we are going do
not lend themselves to formal "hospital visits" or clinic sessions,
now should we wish to impose on the physicians either as travel participants
nor as host physicians the formality in dress and decorum of a group of
visiting (and rather maladapted) consultants.
I would not envision this as a "busman's holiday" where
physicians would be eager to make rounds in a capital city medical institution,
but would rather informally interact with me and others in a setting new, and
perhaps exotic to them in which we can point out the natural features of the
environment and how they were used by those who had gone before as part of
their healing culture. I have also
added a few recent editorials asked of me for any additional copy you might
like to use from these topics which will be parts of the discussion themes.
Almost all programs in which
I have participated are accreditable for CME, and I can usually write a letter
from my positions in this institution that may recognize this claim by any
participant. If we go through the
approval process in advance, there is often a perfunctory review of the program
content, an examination of the setting (there have been several recent disallowals
of any activity based on a cruise ship) and a charge for this service by any
reviewing institution--my only probably included. I have done scores of such programs, and most recently, I have
simply certified on my letterhead and through my credentials the credit-worthy
nature of this kind of program and that has been sufficient for CM credit, as
recently as the program last week in Nepal.
I hope this gives you an
adequate base, even if general to get the brochure out, and we will certainly
fill in the content as it is developed to be a rigorous and good experience for
all participants.
Cheers!
GWG
Addenda from the Out of Assa
book reviews:
NEW BOOK about an academic
surgeon's volunteer work in the Heart of Darkness
ISBN 0-9669305-0-9, April,
2000, 346 pp., 16 pp. color. $ 15.95 + $ 3.20 S&H.
Read about a surgeon's
medical volunteerism in providing medical services to a remote village in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo. Learn about what it takes to practice complex
surgeries in an underdeveloped nation. Available through local bookstores,
Internet bookstores, or direct from the publisher. Send check or money order
payable to: Three Hawks Publishing LC, 1300 Bishop Lane, Alexandria, VA 22302.
Visit our website http://www.3hawks.com for more information about book, author, and link to author's
site for international medical education opportunities. Free excerpt published
at our site.
"Glenn Geelhoed offers
readers a rare and memorable glimpse in le vrai Afrique-'the real Africa'-with
the authority of one who has first-hand experience. Out of Assa is a story full
of tenderness, wit, and above all, compassion for the joys and sorrows of life
in rural Africa. Geelhoed's adventures, misadventures, and insights into life in
the heart of Africa animate this distant land and its wonderful people. He
leaves you feeling as if you have taken the journey with him." David Goodman, author of Fault Lines:
Journeys Into the New South Africa
"Dr. Glenn W. Geelhoed
has shown in this book that the real treasures in life are available in the
life of learning the unknown itself. In sharing his medical experience in Assa,
a Congolese village in Central Africa, he reveals what life's adventure is all
about-a healing experience of the highest inspiration for all who wish to
embrace the transforming power of giving one's self, heart and mind for the
right cause, and the wealth of nourishment in learning from and with the poor,
the destitute, and the neglected."
***** A great hands-on read for aspiring …physicians April 21,
2000 Reviewer: Semper Fidelis from New York, New York. An anonymous, five-star
review posted at http://www.amazon.com.