Global Health Welcome to the Unexpected

The book Global Health: Welcome to the Unexpected by Yann Meunier, presents a unique collection of experiences and clinical vignettes that transports the contemporary medical practitioner with his or her sophisticated diagnostic and therapeutic modalities into a completely different world of health care delivery. The disparities between the medical care available in modern, industrialized nations and that available in under-resourced developing countries could not be starker.

It is not only a portrayal of health care delivery in disadvantaged and poverty-plagued regions of the world, but it also provides important lessons that facilitate patient-physician interaction and care despite severe lack of resources. This is effectively done by the author who has a very rare, greater-than-25-year experience in global health extending to 25 different countries on 6 different continents. His medical practice had an unusual blend of humanism, knowledge, skill, compassion, empathy, dedication, and absolute commitment. And it is the combination of these factors that provides an essentially unparalleled insight into what it takes to improve the health care of some of our world's most destitute patient populations. Very simply, Dr. Meunier has shown that it begins with treating patients as the human beings that they are, deserving of respect, no matter what their ethnic, cultural, language, political, or socio-economic backgrounds might be.

The "Lessons for the Doctor" after each patient vignette were essential to Dr. Meunier's successful management of his patients and certainly form the foundation for trust and meaningful patient-physician interaction. But the caring and compassionate, skilled physician who has dedicated his or her career to providing medical care where it may not exist, yet is most needed, is well personified by Dr. Meunier's accomplishments in improving the human condition.

This book is a must-read for the physician who has chosen to discard the better life and focus his or her career on alleviating suffering and disease in some very desolate regions of the world. And even more importantly, it captures the essence of the humanism that should be a part of every physician-an embodiment that is sometimes lost in the training of our future medical doctors, where the newer technologies and innovations overwhelm the current medical curricula. The book is thus also a must-read for today's medical students who are faced with curricula that are beginning to obscure the very meaningful and personal aspect of the physician-patient relationship that I recognized as sacred and indispensable when I was in medical school a half-century ago. Thirdly, this book should serve as a reminder to all practicing physicians of the potential positive benefits of effective physician-patient relationships. And lastly, the book will serve to inspire anyone in any walk of life!

Oscar Salvatierra, M.D.
Advising Dean
Stanford University Medical Center
and Stanford University School of Medicine

The Author:

Yann Meunier MD has lived and practiced medicine in various countries of the Americas, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Oceania. In the US he has worked at Stanford University as the Director of the Stanford Health Promotion Network and at Stanford Hospital and Clinics as the Director of International Corporate Affairs and Business Development.