Penn doc seeks peace through medicine

Think of it as Penn's own microcosmic peace process. The Middle East Medical Society, created by Raz Winiarsky, a resident in the Penn Medical School's Department of Orthopedic Surgery, is aiming to bring health professionals together from America and the Middle East for communication, care and education and to promote an agenda of tolerance and understanding. "Just working together with someone on a common goal can make you understand each other," Winiarsky said. The society -- run through Penn's Office of International Medicine -- was officially founded in December by Winiarsky, his Orthopedic Surgery colleague Richard Seldes and Allyson Gage of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. It will set up a forum for Arab and Israeli physicians to exchange medical ideas and information with each other and their American counterparts -- regardless of the political or ideological conflicts that stand between them. "The idea is simple and unique," said Winiarsky, 31. "Every project we take on captures the theme of a collective, multinational, multiethnic group of people working together for the common cause of humanity." Winiarsky said that there are more than 150 people who want to become members of the society and the group is reaching out to potential members and anyone else who wants to help the cause. He recently met with former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who he said told him that there are "no limits" to this project. Winiarsky also said Philadelphia officials -- including Mayor Ed Rendell -- support his work since the society will reflect well on the city and make it recognized in the Middle East. Winiarsky, who was born in Israel and lived there until he was 10 years old, said that he first thought about forming a group bridging the cultural gap between Israelis and Arabs two years ago. Since he never served in the Israeli army, like most of his countrymen did, Winiarsky decided he wanted to help his people in another way. Also, as an undergraduate at New York University, he became friends with an Egyptian Arab who had much of the same background as he did and also wanted to be a physician. Their friendship made him contemplate what the tension between their two peoples -- which included wars in which their fathers had fought against each other in the Israeli and Egyptian armies -- had done to them. "I realized that my father and his father had been trying to kill each other many years earlier, and if they had succeeded, we would never have been born," he said, reminding himself of the importance of communication and understanding. And while it seems as though Arabs and Israelis are constantly at odds over politics, Winiarsky said the political problems between Arabs and Israelis end once the group gathers. "We are 100 percent non-political," Winiarsky said, adding that the society allows Arabs and Israelis to "hide" under the neutral "blankets of medicine" and work together. Donald Silberberg, the director of Penn's International Medical Programs, said that the society is important not only because of the benefits it will bring to medical care in the Middle East, but also because the apolitical nature of health care makes health professionals "excellent bridge people between countries that are otherwise having difficulties." The society's main project at this point is a World Wide Web site -- http://www.memed.org -- and a telecommunications network that will include a directory of health care workers and an on-line consulting service which will allow physicians in the Middle East to post patient information on the Web and get treatment advice from physicians in American medical centers. The society will also bring Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian physicians to trauma centers in America for training. And the group is planning a trauma conference in May that will be held in Jordan at the King Hussein Medical Complex. "A physician should be able to travel to an adjacent country to learn new concepts and the application of new technologies without reprisal because of his or her religious beliefs or country of origin," said Robert Fitzgerald, chairperson of Penn's Department of Orthopedic Surgery and a supporter of the society.

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