Alam Sehat Lestari (ASRI), Sukadana, West Kalimantan, Indonesia

After an undergraduate research experience studying orangutans in Gunung Palung National Park in Indonesia, Kinari Webb decided that becoming a physician was the best way to help people in this rural section of Borneo. Returning there after graduating from Yale School of Medicine and a family medicine residency program in California, she set up Health in Harmony, a non-profit organization that makes the connection between human and environmental health.

Three Indonesian MDs, a dentist and four nurses staff the three exam room clinic, with a lab to perform malaria and TB smears, bloodwork and urinalysis. Volunteers visit as advisors and educators to the licensed physicians, as it is illegal to practice medicine in Indonesia without an Indonesian medical license. They see patients with malaria, tuberculosis, diabetes, asthma, seizure disorders, psychiatric disorders, and advanced stages of many common and rare diseases.

As indicated above, non-Indonesian physicians are not allowed by Indonesian law to provide direct patient care unless it is under the auspices of "transfer of knowledge." HIH and ASRI full agree with this law and ask medical volunteers at this site to consider this an opportunity for respectful capacity-building. Our goal is for you to conduct daily bed-side teaching of our Indonesian physicians, all of whom are general practitioners. We ask you to focus on differential diagnoses, presentations, physical exam skills, procedures and evidence-based treatment. Presentations are done on Fridays, and often include doctors from the local government clinic. Understand the difficulty and complexity of providing care in an extremely low-resource setting.

Please contact Kari Malen, the HIH Volunteer Coordinator directly for guidance about research opportunities.