Health care ambassadors make mission to Czech Republic
By Christina Leslie
Correspondent
NEW BRUNSWICK— Five Saint Peter’s University Hospital doctors traveled nearly 4,100 miles to share their knowledge of medicine with colleagues from around the world in late June at the behest of the hospital’s director of pathology, Dr. Karel Raska.
The attending physicians from Saint Peter’s included Dr. Joseph D. Janci, academic chair and OB/GYN, who discussed his research on endometrial hyperplasia; Dr. Bipin Patel, chair of the Department of Pediatrics, who lectured on major advances in child health over the past 50 years; Dr. Palma Formica, chair of the Department of Family Practice who presented her research on quality and professionalism in health care delivery; and Dr. David Alcid, chief of Infectious Diseases, who discussed the practice of tropical medicine in North America.
The physicians joined musicians, artists, politicians and academicians from throughout the world in the city of Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, near the capital city of Prague, for the 23rd Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) World Congress, June 25 to July 2.
The Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) was incorporated in New York City in 1961 in an attempt to gather those of Czechoslovak descent for an exchange of knowledge and culture. The society’s Web site, www.svu2000.org, details how its mission has evolved: “The original concept of the society of Czech and Slovak intelligentsia abroad has changed into that of an organization open to all scholars, regardless of national background, who are genuinely interested in the advancement of Czechoslovak scholarship.”
The SVU has active chapters around the world; large groups abound in Germany and Australia, with the main U.S. sites being New York City and Washington, the former location of the group’s headquarters.
Dr. Karel Raska, a member of the SVU since the late 1990s, was born and educated in Prague where he was awarded his Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 1965. Later that year, upon receiving a Commonwealth Fund Fellowship from Yale University, he arrived in the U.S. to continue studies of anti-cancer nucleoside analogs. Dr. Raska returned to Prague, but finally emigrated to the U.S. in 1968 and joined the faculty of Rutgers Medical School in New Brunswick. The soft-spoken Czech is descended from a long line of physicians: his father was a doctor of microbiology and epidemiology in public health and world-renowned, and his 94-year-old mother is still a practicing pharmacologist in the Czech Republic and gave one of the speeches at the World Congress. Raska beamed as he recounted the attendees’ enthusiastic response to the New Brunswick physicians’ research. “People stayed after the panel was adjourned and asked very pointed, informed questions,” he said.
Raska had hand-picked the doctors according to their fields of expertise rather than heritage, and by which had a knack for explaining complicated concepts to a lay audience. He said all four seemed enchanted by the country and invigorated by the symposium.
Dr. Alcid, an expert on Lyme disease and West Nile virus, said he relished the surprised reactions of his fellow scientists to his research on tropical diseases in the United States.
“The tropical disease specialists were amazed,” Dr. Raska recalled. “They took copious notes and were very surprised how many of these diseases we have in New Brunswick.”
“You have to remember, with Rutgers University here in town, we have people coming from all over the world,” Dr. Alcid said. “People also visit their home countries and unknowingly return home incubating diseases. Right here in New Brunswick, Saint Peter’s sees 12 to 15 cases of malaria a year.”
At the conclusion of this year’s congress, Dr. Raska assumed the post of SVU president. Dr. Raska’s office on the fifth floor of the hospital complex looks out over the city of New Brunswick; family photos are juxtaposed with an aerial view showing a bucolic scene of his wife’s family’s home in Czech. His words showed much the same pride in his fellow physicians as he related that two of his colleagues had already requested invitations to the next symposium.
*The attached/referenced article was originally published in The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen, and is protected under U.S. and international copyright law