July 25, 2003

Toronto's Delgado a big hit at MGH

Carlos Delgado, first baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays, has many fans. This was apparent July 18 when he visited the MGH and autographed baseballs in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit on Ellison 3. But Delgado is a fan too. His visit to the hospital while he was in town to face off against the Red Sox was to show his unflagging support of a special collaboration between the MGH and his hometown of Aguadilla, a city on the west coast of Puerto Rico.

The hospital's collaboration comes in the form of a telemedicine connection between the Partners Telemedicine program and the Buen Samaritano Hospital (BSH) in Aguadilla. Since April 2001, this collaboration has been spearheaded by Ernesto Gonzalez, MD, a long-time dermatologist and physician leader at the MGH, who also hails from Aguadilla. Residents on the western side of Puerto Rico have traditionally been underserved in receiving medical care. The BSH, however, recently was purchased by a nonprofit medical group and is in the midst of a financial turnaround. And with the added benefit of the collaboration with Partners Telemedicine, BSH now can better serve its patients.

After months of planning and development, the relationship between the two institutions has become one of the first telemedicine programs to link a major academic hospital in the United States with a hospital in the Caribbean. The collaboration allows physicians at BSH to consult with MGH experts in a wide range of specialties. Working with a leading American institution such as the MGH also is helping BSH better manage doctor and nurse shortages by making the hospital more attractive to prospective health care providers, ultimately enabling it to serve more patients. In addition, the telemedicine link helps foster new consultations and referrals to the MGH and allows MGH clinicians to offer academic lectures and other educational programs for the physician and nursing staff of the BSH.

The focus of the program in its beginning stages is to provide pediatric care consultations. Plans call for the program to expand in the future. Last November, Marco Reyes, administrator for BSH, and Eliezer Rivera Lugo, chairman of the BSH Board of Trustees, came to the MGH to meet with hospital leadership to identify other potential collaborations between the two hospitals.

The program has come to fruition through the perseverance of Gonzalez and his commitment to serving his native home. "I've been with the MGH for 27 years and have done well here personally and professionally," he says. "It is a privilege to be able to help provide such a gift as this program to the people of my hometown."

Gonzalez developed the relationship with the help of other MGHers, including John Stakes, MD, of MGH Neurology; Natan Noviski, MD, of MassGeneral Hospital for Children; Joe Kvedar, MD, Joe Ternullo and Courtney Trautman of Partners Telemedicine; and Denis Bustin from MGH Development. Gonzalez has also garnered financial support for the program from two major donors — one being Delgado, whose recent visit highlighted his involvement with the partnership.