Medical Student Lindsey Pileika Visits Colombia

February 26, 2019

Lindsey Pileika is a first-year candidate at Alpert School of Medicine of Brown University, pursuing an M.D. and a Master of Science degree in Population Medicine. With support from CLACS as well as the Colombian Collaborative Consortium (CCC), she traveled to Bogotá and Vista Hermosa in Meta, Colombia in January 2019, to work on the project: “Barriers to Healthcare of FARC Ex-Combatants: Qualitative Perspectives from Healthcare Providers and FARC Health Promoters” with Christopher Reynolds (Fulbright Scholar). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with healthcare providers and FARC community members in Vista Hermosa, Meta and the Espacio Territorial de Capacitación y Reincorporación of Georgina Ortiz (ETCR). The purpose of this project was to identify the perceived barriers that exist in reincorporating FARC communities into the healthcare system from the lens of FARC ex-combatants, health promoters and healthcare providers.

This summer, Ms. Pileika will be returning to Bogotá, Colombia to work on her master’s thesis, where she will examine the barriers that exist for providers in providing emergency care to Venezuelan migrant communities. This project, also qualitative in nature, will focus on identifying the systematic roadblocks, related to emergency care training, capacity and operational structure, confronted by frontline providers in urban, migratory receptor neighborhoods. As part of CCC, this project will complement ongoing efforts to establish a national baseline in emergency care training across Colombia and inform the feasibility in implementing the World Health Organization (WHO) Basic Emergency Care Course, specifically for recently graduated providers in urban receptor settings.