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Teaching, training, disaster relief: Academy adds global dimension to pediatrics

Burris Duncan, M.D., FAAP, had no idea his 1972 trip to Brazil would change him so profoundly.

On that trip with the U.S. hospital ship, Project Hope, Dr. Duncan said he saw things "I'd never seen before, things that shouldn't happen" — most disturbingly, dying children who could have been saved if treated in the United States.

"It was a tremendous eye opener," recalled Dr. Duncan, AAP Section on International Child Health chairperson. "I had very little concept of the vast differences between the technological world and the majority of the world."

Upon returning to Colorado, Dr. Duncan had difficulty re-entering his work world. He tried to tell colleagues about his experience but found "they would listen politely for awhile and then switch to their own lives," leaving him in "reverse culture shock." To reconcile this disparity, he decided to take a second trip to Brazil.