Doctors Without Borders president to speak at UF

February 26, 2007

Dr. Darin Portnoy has opened clinics in Liberia, helped Chechen refugees get emergency health care in Georgia, coordinated primary care programs in the Sudan, and helped form programs to control tuberculosis in Uzbekistan and measles in Nigeria.

Portnoy, a New York physician and president of the board of directors of Doctors Without Borders in the United States, will speak at 7 p.m. March 5 at the University of Florida Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.

Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières, is an international medical humanitarian organization composed of doctors, nurses and other medical and nonmedical professionals who work to provide health care to patients in war-torn regions, medically underserved countries and disaster zones. The group also sets up programs like those Portnoy ran to help stop the spread of infectious diseases in these countries.

“My wish is that the community will be made aware, by the example set by Doctors Without Borders, of current issues in global health and be inspired to contribute to the effort to improve it,” said Heidi Nagel, a second-year medical student in the College of Medicine who organized the event with classmates. “This to me is the primary altruistic example of what I believe in as a doctor.”

One College of Medicine faculty member is already contributing. Dr. I. Keith Stone, chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, recently joined Doctors Without Borders and will be working in Sierra Leone until June.

Medical students and public health students from the College of Public Health and Health Professions have spent the past year planning and raising money to bring Portnoy to UF, Nagel said. They also plan to sell photos at the event to give an additional donation to the organization.

The event is free and open to the public.