Right after my spanish lesson this morning, I took a taxi over to Valerie’s lovely flat in Barranco. We met for a few minutes to collect our thoughts and then grabbed another taxi (after rejecting one who wanted to charge too much) out to “the southern cone” of Lima to visit Hospital Maria Auxiliadora.
Hospital Maria Auxiliadora is a large regional medical center. If you have a referral for anything remotely complicated beyond what an under-resourced community clinic can provide, you’ll come here. It is nestled between two “rougher” parts of town (pueblos jovenes) Villa del Maria Triunfo and San Juan de Miraflores.
Valerie needed to go out there to speak to a doctor about a Canadian medical team that has funding to do a double-blinded RCT on the effects of Vitamin A & E for the prevention of pre-eclampsia. She was going to meet with a head hospital OB about the study to gage their interest on behalf of the Canadian team. I went with her to check out the hospital.
As is the norm in field work, the doctor was unavailable and so Valerie joined me in my quest to “check things out.” Good thing, too — as she was more skilled than I at negotiating the long lines to ask questions. Bottom line: we found great information about a violence program for aggressors and hooked up with the hospital social worker who spends all of her time wrapped up in a program called “MAMIS,” a child and family violence treatment campaign. After feeling like stalkers for hovering around her office as she finished with a family, we finally managed to see her and talk briefly. It was a productive conversation; I’m going back in the morning to meet with her to talk more. It was a super great trip and I am very happy to have made this contact!
So tomorrow, after my morning appointment at HMA, Angela (cool doctoral student from Hopkins) is meeting me at the gates to the hospital grounds and I am joining her to Las Pampas, the barrio community most closely studied and served by PRISMA. Angela is focusing her dissertation on adolescents in this community. Added bonus: she arranged for us to meet with one of the community and PRISMA-affliated physicians before the focus group gets started. In other words, we’re gearing up for another full day!
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