April 29, 2005

2005 Durant Fellow named

Ann York Kao, MD, of the MGH Chelsea HealthCare Center (right), recently was named recipient of the third annual Thomas S. Durant, MD, Fellowship in Refugee Medicine. Kao was honored in a special ceremony in the Trustees Room April 15 that also recognized returning 2004 Durant fellows Grace Deveney, RN, and Katie Fallon, RN.

The Durant Fellowship was established in 2001 to honor the legacy of Durant, the late MGH associate director, who spent much of his career traveling to some of the world's most devastated nations — including Cambodia, Albania, Bosnia, Rwanda, Somalia, Croatia and Afghanistan. With him came supplies, medical expertise and the most important tool of all — hope.

As a Durant fellow, Kao will devote a year to serving refugee populations in an African country to be determined and also will try to return to Indonesia, where she spent time earlier this year with Project HOPE helping victims of the tsunami. Kao, who specializes in adult and pediatric urgent care at MGH Chelsea, expects to spend the first six months delivering primary and acute-care services in a refugee camp setting. From January to March 2006, she will earn a diploma in tropical medicine in London, after which she plans to resume field work, possibly by extending her experiences in Indonesia.

In addition to her work with Project HOPE, Kao practiced primary care on a Navajo reservation in Arizona and traveled on humanitarian missions to Romania and Vietnam.

"While I never had the chance to meet Dr. Durant, I have a great appreciation for the spirit of service he possessed," Kao says. "It will be an honor to continue living his legacy through this fellowship."

Applications for the 2006 fellowship now are available. Depending on the proposed work to be done, the Durant Fellowship provides either six to nine months or one year of sponsorship to MGHers who wish to serve refugee populations and victims of war and natural disaster with medical care and support. The fellowship is open to all clinical disciplines. Interested applicants should submit a curriculum vitae, two letters of recommendation and a one-page essay to Larry Ronan, MD, director of the Durant Fellowship. Selection is made by a committee of Durant Fellowship leaders from the MGH and the community. This year's application deadline is May 15.