Revolutionary Doctors

“What a terrific book! I have been researching Cuban medical internationalism for several years, and found Steve Brouwer’s book an excellent, insightful first-person account of how Cuban medical cooperation (and not aid!) is changing the face of the developing world.”
—John Kirk, Professor of Latin American Studies, Dalhousie University, Canada, author of Cuban Medical Internationalism: Origins, Evolution, and Goals

Steve Brouwer: I have appreciated the favorable responses to Revolutionary Doctors that have come from a variety of experts who study global public health, Cuban international medical missions, and the development of medical practice and education in Cuba over the past 50 years. Readers of Revolutionary Doctors who want to do further reading and get deeper background information should consult some of the following sources:

John Kirk and H. Michael Erisman, Cuban Medical Internationalism: Origins, Evolution and Goals (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)

MEDICC Review, international journal of Cuban health and Medicine, published by MEDICC, Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba, is the only peer-reviewed medical journal in English devoted to the practice of medicine and health policy in Cuba it can be read online at www.medicc.org

The Social Medicine Portal, a project developed by faculty members of the Department of Family and Social Medicine of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. www.socialmedicine.org

International Journal of Health Services, edited by Vicente Navarro, MD, PhD; professor of health policy, The Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University

In July, Revolutionary Doctors: How Venezuela and Cuba Are Changing the World’s Conception of Health Care will be available from Monthly Review Press. ( http://monthlyreview.org/press/books/pb2396/ )

“a first-hand account of Venezuela’s innovative and inspiring program of community healthcare … Revolutionary Doctors demonstrates how a society committed to the well-being of its poorest people can actually put that commitment into practice, by delivering essential healthcare through the direct empowerment of the people it aims to serve.”

“The Cuban medical education model, so eloquently described in this book, has not merely transformed health care in much of Central and South America. It has shown doctors and medical students who work in the unjust and dysfunctional U.S. health care system that another world is possible.” —Steffie Woolhandler MD MPH; Professor of Public Health, CUNY; Visiting Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

“Revolutionary Doctors tells the story of Cuba’s extraordinary medical personnel who leave their homes and families to support radical struggles for health care abroad. And it shows how this struggle is taken up in places like Venezuela, where poor communities are organizing to provide health care from the ground up. This is a story that deserves to be known.” —Sujatha Fernandes, assistant professor of sociology, Queens College and CUNY Graduate Center; author, Who Can Stop the Drums? Urban Social Movements in Chávez’s Venezuela

Venezuela and Cuba clearly show that the basic human right of access to medical and health care in time of need is not dependent on the level of economic development. Venezuela and Cuba are not rich countries yet, and in spite of this, health care reaches the majority of their populations. They should be considered points of reference for poor countries that want to break with the underdevelopment of health. This book is a rigorous and balanced account of how they did it —Vicente Navarro, MD, PhD; professor of health policy, The Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University; editor-in-chief, International Journal of Health Services

Over the next month or so, I will begin posting articles that expand on themes of the book, recommend sources of reliable information about Cuba and Venezuela, and discuss issues and questions that are introduced by readers. Until then, one can find four articles I wrote about revolutionary medicine at www.venezuelanotes.blogspot.com. I wrote these pieces and others about campesino life while living in the mountains of the state of Lara in Venezuela in 2007-2008.

Here are a few pictures of revolutionary doctors in training:

Medical students in Monte Carmelo, state of Lara, Venezuela, 2008

Jonas talking with a family at the walk-in center in Monte Carmelo

On the left, Mariela, Arelys, and Milena live in Monte Carmelo. Next, Inez is from the nearby village of Bojó, and Karen comes from Peru.

U.S. medical students at the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana in 2009

Frances Pasha, Malik, and Ian

Revolutionary Doctors

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Revolutionary Doctors: How Venezuela and Cuba Are Changing the World’s Conception of Health Care

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