April 14, 2006

Durant fellow advances maternal health

Members of the MGH community gathered in the Haber Conference Room March 31 to hear Susan Tredwell, MD, a physician with the MGH Vincent Obstetrics and Gynecology Service, share her experiences working to promote maternal health issues in Indonesia as one of the 2006 Durant fellows. Her presentation was entitled "Death in Childbirth: Indonesia's Struggle to Reduce Maternal Mortality."

Tredwell (right) first became acquainted with the country and its people while working aboard the USNS Mercy — a U.S. Navy hospital ship — with other MGHers to bring medical aid in the aftermath of the devastating tsunami that hit the region in December 2004. With the support of the fellowship, she returned in the fall of 2005 and has worked tirelessly to improve the health of Indonesian mothers and their children.

"It has been an honor and an adventure to return to Indonesia to continue working with the brave people of the Aceh province," says Tredwell. "I am grateful to the fellowship and my colleagues in my department at the MGH for allowing me the opportunity to participate."

The Thomas S. Durant Fellowship in Refugee Medicine was established in 2001 in honor of Durant, the late MGH associate medical director, who spent much of his career traveling to some of the world's most devastated regions — including Cambodia, Albania, Rwanda, Bosnia, Somalia, Croatia and Afghanistan. The fellowship provides either six to nine months or one year of sponsorship to MGH clinicians who wish to serve refugee populations and victims of war or natural disasters with medical care and support.