09/09/2014
"The Ties that Bind…"
In May 2013, Penny Jessop, former HHH coordinator at Tulane University, visited Prague, Czech Republic and had the opportunity to meet with two of her former fellows. It was rewarding to hear them reflect on the impact of the HHH fellowship and the professional development activities on their lives and by extension on the lives for the people in the Czech Republic. Penny had great photos of the fellows but her camera was stolen in Finland on the last stop of her trip! Take her word for it that they looked great in their Tulane SPHTM baseball caps. Here’s an update on each of them.
Jan Stuchlik
After the fellowship Jan returned to the Czech Republic to the same job he had when he left, medical director at FOKUS, an NGO that provides services for patients with chronic mental illnesses. At that point they had 15 employees and 1,000 clients. Today they have 200 employees and serve more than 2,500 patients in six towns around Prague. They provide rehabilitation, case management, sheltered housing and workshops, and home care. The goal of FOKUS is to keep patients in the community and out of institutions. Jan has been working on the regional level to transform the Czech health care system moving from hospital based care to community centered programs. Jan and his colleagues face the same problems he observed in the states during his fellowship, keeping staff engaged in change, obtaining funding, and government bureaucracy. Jan said that a lot of time is spent on contract management and monitoring and evaluation. He jokingly said he doesn’t want to hear the word “indicators” one more time! Sometimes it seems like the staff is spending more time on this then they are on service delivery. When asked to reflect on his Humphrey experience, Jan said the HHH year gave him time for reflection, time to recharge, and the opportunity to observe US agencies doing work he hoped to do back home. And it allowed him to select those models that would work for him and those he could choose to discard. Jan and his wife are living about 40k outside of Prague in a beautiful rural area. Their two kids are now out on their own at work and university but joined us (and their gigantic dog!) for dinner; it was a wonderful evening of typical Czech food and hospitality.
Pavel Trunecka
Today Pavel is chief of the transplant center at the Clinical Institute for Experimental Medicine. The center does more than 400 kidney, liver, pancreas, and heart transplants a year. Pavel said he wouldn’t be where he is today if he hadn’t had the opportunity to do the Humphrey Fellowship. He was especially grateful for the emphasis on the Professional Affiliation. His experience at Mt. Sinai hospital was transformative. Pavel continues to be in touch with the professional colleagues he met during his year at Tulane. He travels to the US several times a year to attend professional meetings and study groups. His biggest challenge today is working within the politics of his organization – it’s not always easy to be a physician in a team of surgeons. But he meets the challenge everyday with great success. His unit has met very high performance standards – above the EU average on transplants. Pavel took us to dinner in Prague – and showcased Czech cuisine and wines. It was a wonderful evening – made even more special because Pavel, who runs his great-grandfather’s vineyards, knew a great deal about the wines. It was a holiday weekend and Pavel had left the family in the county to come back into Prague to join us. Two of his children are now in medical school, one is in Pennsylvania in high school, and the youngest 13 year old Stephen is a rising tennis star.
