BIDMC Team Brings Much-Needed Urologic Care to Cape Verde

Since 2010, a team of medical staff and interpreters from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has made yearly trips to Cape Verde, a country off the west coast of Africa, to provide much-needed health care and health system improvements. One of their main areas of focus is urologic health.

"What started as a dream and a concept on a shoestring budget has blossomed into a well-orchestrated medical endeavor," says Michael Kearney, MD, a urologist at BIDMC and Beth Israel Deaconess HealthCare-Chelsea who has led the mission from the beginning.

Two BIDMC interpreters who hailed from Cape Verde initially had the idea to organize a medical mission to their homeland. With personal knowledge about the scores of Cape Verdean men who were living with discomfort, and others who had died from urologic complications and infections, they soon found out that very few of the nearly half-million people who live on Cape Verde even had access to the single urologist in the country.

This discovery, coupled with the fact that BIDMC sees a high volume of Cape Verdean patients with urology concerns, caught Kearney's attention. He and the interpreters assembled a team, began collecting donated medical supplies, and coordinated with the Cape Verdean consulate to find a host hospital.

"Doing missionary urology has always been something I wanted to incorporate into my practice," says Kearney, "but I always thought that it would have to be later in my life. Now that we've been doing this for five years, and the momentum is taking off, I realize how important not waiting to do things is, and that 'later' starts now."

On their first trip to Cape Verde in November 2010, patients were lined up at the Hospital Regional de Santiago Norte in Santa Catarina. In a three-day period, Kearney and his team treated 90 patients and completed five surgeries. One of those procedures was the first trans-urethral resection of the prostate ever performed in Cape Verde.

"A trans-urethral resection is a telescopic resection of a prostate that allows someone who hasn't urinated in years to be able to urinate on his own," Kearney explains.

Kidney stones are one urologic ailment commonly seen by Kearney and his team on their trips to Cape Verde, one that can be serious and even life-threatening for patients in such a place where proper treatments aren't readily available. The BIDMC mission team looks forward to continually advancing the treatment and education they provide to the people and doctors in Cape Verde.

"In one young man we were able to unobstruct his kidney with an open surgical procedure to remove a large stone," Kearney remembers. "On our upcoming mission, we hope to bring donated scopes and a surgical laser, which should alleviate the need for open surgery by allowing for more minimally invasive procedures, and solve such problems."

Over the last five years, the BIDMC team has expanded to include prostate and urogynecology specialists, and each trip has provided life-altering care for many patients. Additionally, there has been a continuing effort to improve the country's overall health systems. Kearney notes that Cape Verdean physicians have also been able to come to BIDMC to observe and learn.

"I expect this relationship to expand and grow, especially with a medical school just opening in Cape Verde," he says.

"Our next scheduled trip is in May 2016," adds Nakul Raykar, MD, a surgery resident at BIDMC and member of the Cape Verde medical mission team. "We will have staff from surgery, urology, vascular surgery and urogynecology traveling to Cape Verde to assist in a combination of clinical care delivery, health systems assessment, and trauma systems education and development. We're really looking forward to continuing our partnership with the Cape Verde clinicians, government and communities."

The Cape Verde Ministry of Health is grateful for the advanced men's health care, as well as general medical care, that BIDMC has been able to bring to their nation — the country's prime minister, José Maria Neves, honored members of the BIDMC medical mission team at a recent gala dinner and cultural night in Swansea, Mass., part of a series of events honoring the 40th anniversary of Cape Verde's national independence.

"It was wonderful to represent the entire BIDMC team that is so dedicated to helping those less fortunate," says Cape Verde native Ernestina (Tina) DaMoura-Moreira, an interpreter at BIDMC who was instrumental in starting the mission. "Cape Verde is home to many of us. We're honored to be able to take this annual trip and so appreciative to those who support our work."

Above content provided by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. For advice about your medical care, consult your doctor.

Posted October 2015