As the New Hampshire primary draws closer, eight students at Dartmouth Medical School are putting healthcare policy at center stage.
The Albert Schweitzer fellows plan to ask the same question of each Democratic presidential candidate when they come to Dartmouth. They will use the candidates' answers as a springboard for discussion about politics and medicine at their own symposium for the medical community, said the program's Vermont and New Hampshire coordinator, Rebecca Torrey.
Their questioning began earlier this month when Howard Dean spoke at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center's Grand Rounds lecture series. There, Schweitzer fellow Joseph Dwaihy DMS '06 asked Dean what he thought was the most important change that needed to be made in order to improve the way medicine is practiced.
"We wanted more of a broad vision question that we can use to frame our presentation," said Schweitzer fellow Emily Walker DMS '06 of the words they chose.
The politically-based symposium is "quite different from anything fellows have done in the past," Torrey said, noting that it is a departure from last year's symposium on teenage substance abuse and the prior year's panel on attention deficit disorder.
The group chose to focus on healthcare politics because "we wanted to take advantage of the fact that this was an election year," said Schweitzer fellow Katrina Mitchell DMS '06.
Educating themselves and the larger community of medical students was important to the fellows, who recognized that many become "a little apolitical" while in medical school, Mitchell said.
"We just wanted to distill all the things the candidates are saying into edible bits of information for everyone," she continued.
Walker agreed, noting the importance of evaluating where each candidate stands on healthcare related issues.
"If any of these people end up being elected, it could directly affect the way things turn out for us when we start to practice," she said.
The symposium, which will take place shortly before the New Hampshire primary, also aims to register voters and encourage students to participate in the political process.
"There's no sense in educating people if they're not going to actually go out and vote," Mitchell said.
Though discussion and political activity will be encouraged, the fellows will not endorse a candidate, Mitchell said.
There are six Albert Schweitzer fellowship programs nationwide, based in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, North Carolina and Pittsburgh, as well as here in Vermont and New Hampshire.
The selective year-long fellowship draws second-year students from Dartmouth Medical School, the University of Vermont College of Medicine and the Vermont Law School with the goal of training "leaders in public service," Torrey said.
Aside from the symposium, the major component of the fellowship program is a 200 hour community service project through which students seek to "make a difference in the lives of people who are underserved by the medical establishment," Torrey said.
According to Torrey, who is involved in the selection process, applicants are judged on their proposal for community service as well as their potential to serve the community.
Fellows must be "really passionate about others and helping those who are less fortunate," she said.
Albert Schweitzer, a noted physician and humanitarian, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship began in 1940 to support his medical work in Africa during World War II. The U.S. Schweitzer Fellows Programs were established in 1991 to encourage graduate students to seek community service projects.
