January 25, 2012

Dr. James Sirleaf’s career took a detour a few years ago during a visit to see his mother, Liberia’s president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – the first women to be elected president in modern Africa – and a 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Dr. Sirleaf, educated at Morehouse College in Atlanta and Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn., visited Liberia in 2004-2005 during his mother’s run for office. "I didn’t want to do all the campaign things, so I went to visit the hospital, and I saw the lack of medical training; the country was coming out of years of civil war," he said. The war left the country’s health care infrastructure in tatters, with looting of hospital equipment and supplies, and, more important, massive dislocation of medical personnel. There were fewer doctors in the entire country than in some emergency departments in the United States, Dr. Sirleaf noted.

Photos courtesy the HEARTT Foundation   The HEARTT Foundation sends medical residents and practicing physicians to provide care and teach at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Medical Center, Liberia’s largest teaching hospital, located in Monrovia.

That’s when he decided to work to shore up the medical education and bring more doctors to Liberia. His efforts eventually blossomed into Health Education and Relief Through Teaching (HEARTT) Foundation, a nonprofit organization that sends medical residents and practicing physicians to provide care and teach at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Medical Center, Liberia’s largest teaching hospital, located in Monrovia.

Dr. Sirleaf currently works as emergency medicine physician at Bridgeport (Conn.) Hospital and maintains an academic affiliation with Yale University, New Haven, Conn.

What are some of the key medical issues in Liberia that HEARTT works to address?

Dr. James Sirleaf is shown here with some children in Liberia. When the HEARTT Foundation began its work in Liberia, where there was only one pediatrician in practice in the country.

Here are some recent statistics: The World Health Organization reported that Liberia has the world’s highest neonatal mortality rate, at 66 deaths/1,000 live births. The prevalence of malaria is approximately 57%, and 14% of these patients die from the disease.

How did the HEARTT Foundation get started, and what makes it unique?

After my visit to Liberia in 2004, I wanted to do more to increase the number of doctors and other medical personnel there. They have hospitals, and what we have provided mostly is manpower. That is one way we stand out. You can give people equipment, but sometimes what is more important is having trained individuals in place to provide care.

I started working with the [department that runs the Global Health and International Emergency Medicine Fellowship]. We now have doctors and residents rotating in Liberia all the time.

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