Drs Anita Dohn and Michael Dohn

SAMS Missionaries in Health Ministry
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Michael, Elizabeth & Anita 
We are a physician couple who had been working in academic medicine. Following a specific call to cross-cultural mission service and completion of a discernment process in our home church and diocese (Church of the Advent, Cincinnati, OH in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio), we were accepted as missionaries by the Society of Anglican Missionaries and Senders and were assigned to work with la Iglesia Episcopal Dominicana. After attending language school in Costa Rica, we arrived in San Pedro de Macorís the beginning of May, 2000.
 

Anita grew up in Westerville, Ohio, and attended the Methodist Church of the Messiah. Michael was born in Middletown, Ohio, and attended the Episcopal Church of the Ascension. We met during Anita's senior year in college when she was doing a research elective at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine where Michael was a first-year medical student. We were married at Church of the Messiah by a Methodist minister and an Episcopal priest.

 
 
Anita Dohn, MD, MSc (Public Health)
 
Prior to becoming a missionary with SAMS, I was an Associate Director at the St. Elizabeth Family Practice Residency Program in Edgewood, KY.
 
As a missionary, I am working at Clínica Esperanza y Caridad. I see patients in the HIV/AIDS treatment center and serve as coordinator for the community health program.
 
The community health program has about 225 volunteer health promoters working in about 12 neighborhoods and communities. After training by the community health team, the promoters regularly visit families in their communities concerning health topics such as:
 
Causes of childhood deaths
  • Diarrhea, respiratory infections, vaccine preventable diseases, and other illnesses kill 2% to 3% of Dominican children before the age of five years.
 
Women's health
  • The Caribbean region is the third highest area of the world for cervical cancer. Regular Pap tests are a major program emphasis. Breast cancer is also increasing here and a program focus.

 

HIV/AIDS & sexually transmitted diseases

  • The HIV prevalence in our area of the country is nearly 3%. The confidential HIV testing unit at the Clinic actually has a 5% new positive rate (that is, one of every 20 people who comes for a test is diangosed as HIV infected).

 

Other health promotion topics include tuberculosis, first aid, death & dying, maternal/child health, and care of the physically impaired patient at home,  with modules on alcohol misuse and domestic violence in development.    

Michael Dohn, MD
 
I was an Associate Professor of Clinical Internal Medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and Deputy Director for Clinical Care for the Infectious Diseases Center at the UC Medical Center at the time I left to join SAMS as a missionary.
 
As a missionary, I serve as Medical Director for the diocesan Clínica Esperanza y Caridad, manager of the community health program, and I see occassional HIV/AIDS and other patients in consultation.
 
Clínica Esperanza y Caridad has three major divisions:
  • Clinical Medicine
  • Physical Therapy/Rehabilitation
  • Community Health & Prevention
 
In 2008, the Clinic had more than 25,000 patient visits, HIV tested and counseled 941 people, and administered 1,464 vaccines.

 The community health team members
The Clinic's mission is to provide quality health programs for the disenfranchised and poor people. Medical care is expensive, the poor cannot pay for it, and the result is a consistent deficit. The average cost for a medical visit is about US$ 8, of which the Clinic typically has to find an average of US$ 5.50 to cover what the patients cannot pay. Much of the effort of our administrative team is finding funds to keep the Clinic open.