Rob & Liz Peck
This July, Dr. Rob Peck will have the opportunity to realize his childhood ambition to work as a doctor in Africa. With his wife, Liz, a registered nurse with particular interest in pediatrics, and his two young children, Bridgit, two years, and Jack, four months, Rob will move to Mwanza to begin a three-year post working at the Bugando Medical Centre.
Rob discovered his life’s calling at a far younger age than most. When he was only ten years old, Rob’s grandmother took him to Kenya where he had the opportunity to visit a small 100 bed hospital. Rob was shocked to realize that while hundreds of Kenyans sat waiting for medical care, there was only one doctor working at the hospital. Witnessing such great need, Rob knew that he wanted to become a doctor, and that he wanted to work in Africa
Since his visit to Kenya as a ten year old, Rob has worked for short periods in both Africa and rural Haiti, but he recognizes that he will be “a learner as much as a teacher” at Bugando. He is eager to learn more about tropical medicine, which factors only minimally into medical school and residency here in the US, and anticipates unknown challenges as he adjusts to practicing medicine in a low-resource setting.
While patient care is Rob’s profession, his primary goal for his tenure at Bugando is to help train and equip the current residents and interns at Bugando to become the next generation of clinical teachers and attending physicians who will carry BMC into the future.
Rob also looks forward to working with the visiting Weill Cornell physicians who will be cycling through Bugando as part of our fellows and residents program that has been successfully underway since January 2007. As we work to build the teaching capacity at Bugando, the visiting physicians are filling an essential role as additional teachers, or ‘education extenders’ as Rob has coined them. From a short visit to Bugando in October, Rob was able to observe first-hand the shortage of clinical instructors available to oversee and guide the younger doctors on the wards at BMC. Where a comparable hospital in the US would likely have ten, fifteen or even twenty attending physicians, BMC struggles with only one or two present on the wards. Rob believes the Weill Cornell third year residents are essential to help fill this gap.
Rob also appreciates the tremendous learning experience that Bugando is offering to the visiting doctors, and commends the program for building the capacity of the Weill Cornell doctors and inspiring them to become more involved in healthcare in the developing world.
In addition to focusing on the education and training of Bugando’s future trainers in the short term, Rob hopes that in the coming years he will be able to help build a research collaboration between BMC and Cornell. Through this he believes that Touch and Weill Cornell will be able to better assess the impact of the work that is being done at Bugando, and evaluate ways in which efforts can be improved.
Like her husband, Liz Peck has been very interested in medical work in Africa since a young age. While Rob was at medical school at Vanderbilt (the couple met as undergraduates), Liz completed her Masters in nursing at Vanderbilt and spent two years working in primary care in Nashville. When Rob began his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, Liz spent two years providing healthcare services for the homeless in Boston.
Liz has always been drawn to community outreach to underserved populations, and is really looking forward to the community health components of working at Bugando, specifically problems associated with malnutrition. In addition to working with the nurses at BMC, Liz hopes to share her experience by training community health workers.
Both Liz and Rob have begun learning Swahili in preparation for their move in July, and are very excited for the adventures and challenges that lie ahead.
With their expertise and desire to both teach and learn alongside their Tanzanian colleagues, we know that Rob and Liz will have great impact in their work and that their family will be a welcome addition to the Bugando community.