Susan Partovi MD, President
Dr. Susan Partovi, President of H.E.A.L.
Bio.
Born and raised in L.A., I was introduced to severe poverty in high school when I went to Mexico to build houses during Spring Break. I continued to go to Tijuana every Saturday for 5 years during college where I worked with a PA who taught me Poverty Medicine and Spanish. My experiences every Saturday in Tijuana built a foundation for working with the neediest folk and solidified my desire to go into Medicine. I went to Thomas Jefferson Medical School where I met Elaine Goldhammer. Keeping touch, we went our separate ways geographically. I trained at Harbor-UCLA (a county hospital) in Family Medicine and stayed on for 6 more years as faculty. There I developed an appreciation for social justice (and injustice) as I was surrounded by similar minded passionate doctors wanting to make a global difference. I also further molded my abilities and love for teaching. Since then, I have always been teaching medical students. I chose to work in community clinics where I began participating in Homeless Medicine. I attended National Conferences on Homeless Medicine, gave lectures, joined committees and for the last 12 years I have become known internationally as a leader in Homeless and Street Medicine. Ten years ago, I started working for Homeless Health Care L.A. working in their urgent care clinic of their needle exchange in skid row. Two years later, I became their Medical Director and I now run the urgent care clinic (by default becoming the Queen of Abscess Care). I recently started working for LA County for the Department of Health Services in their division called Housing for Health. There we have been granted the mission of providing supportive housing for the severely ill in LA County. I am the Medical Director of Field Services where I supervise the medical care of all those house, including the interim housing (recuperative care facilities) where acutely and chronically ill homeless folk are placed while waiting for permanent supportive housing. I am also the Associate Medical Director of the Star Clinic, our medical hub, where we see the homeless folk of Downtown L.A. and those recently housed.
In 2006, I started the Health Care Advocacy Group for the Medical Students at UCLA (David Geffen School of Medicine). I was also taking 4th Medical Students to Jamaica with Dr. Bruno Lewin as an International Medicine Rotation for several years during that time. Soon, I realized, I wanted to take 3rd year medical students to better impact their career decision making. The students I was working with in our Health Care Advocacy Group were so passionate about compassionate health care for the underserved, that I wanted to impact them at the height of their passion with the intention of further cultivating a realistic career in Poverty Medicine. And so we began creating what has now grown into a non-profit corporation. Four 3rd year students and I put together this rotation and went in December 2009. That experience in 2009 changed my life (detailed in my book, "This is Haiti"). I had worked in Mexico, I had been to South Africa, I had visited India, but nothing prepared me for the utter despair of sick, malnourished children. The Earthquake of January 2010 happened ten days after we had returned! I felt called to go back and so in 2 weeks I was whisked back to Port-Au-Prince where I met Gladys Thomas, the director of The United States for the Children of Haiti, then directing the chaos of post-earthquake at their hospital Hope Hospital. I stayed for 2 weeks and again was a changed woman. I was able to provide much needed primary care in the midst of the chaos and built a lasting relationship with my now "sisters" Gladys Thomas (who shares my birthday! 9-11) and Dr. Gousse. It's also when I met my (unofficially adopted) son, Joel, as he turned up to translate when we were seeing patients in a church. H.E.A.L. has been providing scholarship money for him ever since while he has been attending medical school in the Dominican Republic.The following trip, we only had three students, as many were afraid of the post earthquake potential dangers in Haiti. We ran the hospital for 2 weeks and we were taken to Mussote, 3 hours outside Port-au-Prince (used to be the site of the Reynolds Company...Reynolds Wrap...). Gladys has a 2nd home there and she runs an elementary school there. She wanted us to check on her kids. We loved it so much there, that the following year, we did a one day health fair at the church. The following year became a 2-day health fair. Last year we spent 4 days there. This year we will spend the entire trip attending to the inhabitants of the rural village, Mussotte. We have taken 38 students to Haiti in last 5 years. I live in Venice, California with my four amazing dogs (aka my children).
Elaine Goldhammer MD, Co-President of H.E.A.L.
Bio.
Graduate of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia(with Susan 20 years ago), Tulane Medicine/Pediatrics Residency. Now works as a full time Internal Medicine Hospitalist with Chester County Hospital, Penn Medicine near Philadelphia. Elaine has recently devoted herself to the mission of H.E.A.L.. Her first trip to Haiti was in 2013. Seeing the developing world first hand in Haiti has changed her perspective on privilege and on life. While she is devoted to her career, to her 3 wonderful children and to her loving husband, she has discovered additional meaning in medicine and has broadened her goal of reducing suffering in the world... starting with Haiti.
goldhammer_2000@yahoo.com
