Useful idiots - University of Maryland professors fascinated with the Cuban Health Care System

Universidad of Maryland news/

Ilene Zuckerman was fascinated with the Cuban system.

Following a fascinating, fact-finding visit to health care facilities in Cuba with three colleagues, Ilene Zuckerman, PharmD, PhD, professor at the School of Pharmacy wants to explore how the University of Maryland (UM) can share educational opportunities with students in Maryland and on the island nation.

The government in Cuba is allowing more Americans to travel there. Although the trip by Zuckerman and the others was a personal one, it rose from their professional interests in pharmacy and geriatrics.

"Cuba is only 90 miles from our shores and has not been terribly accessible. So, I was very interested in how a society like Cuba cares for the frail, the elderly, and how the societal and political circumstances affects people," says Reba Cornman, MSW, director of the University of Maryland Geriatrics and Gerontology Education and Research Program in Baltimore.

Unlike in the United States, the Cuban government exclusively runs its national health care system, controlling both the administrative and financial responsibilities for maintaining the health of all of its citizens. There are no private hospitals or clinics in Cuba.

Zuckerman, who heads the School of Pharmacyýs PharmaceuticalPharmacy's Pharmaceutical Health Services Research Department, says "We have a concern for older people and this concern is shared with health care providers in Cuba. So when Reba had this interest in arranging a trip to Cuba, we joined her."

Zuckerman was fascinated with the Cuban system. "What is really interesting there is that their family structure is different than it is here; they don't have nursing homes, or they are very rare. You bring [old family members] into your home like they did in my grandparents' generation."  More >>