Ann Kao
From 2005 to 2006, Kao was a Durant Fellow in Refugee Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she did her residency in internal medicine and pediatrics, in a joint program with Children's Hospital. As a Durant Fellow, she spent a year working in a refugee camp in Rwanda.
"It was an amazing opportunity for me,'' she said. "I was able to be there at the initiation of a new refugee camp in northeast Rwanda. I came in as medical director and was able to work with dedicated local staff to build a health center, hospital, and public health programs.''
Shortly before going to Rwanda, Kao spent a month working with Project Hope on a hospital ship anchored off the coast of Banda Aceh, Indonesia. There, she treated victims of the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that killed tens of thousands of people on December 26, 2004.
"We were able to bring patients from shore to ship and provide advanced medical care,'' she said. "We heard so many stories of people losing their entire families and children losing their parents. The scope of the human tragedy was difficult to deal with.''
She used her experience to co-author a case report in the New England Journal of Medicine that described a condition known as "Tsunami lung."
The article described a bacterial lung infection caused by breathing in mud and polluted water that spreads to the brain, leading to paralysis. The article described how a 17-year-old Indonesian girl was saved on board the ship.
Also during her residency Kao spent four to six weeks each in Vietnam and Romania and on a Navajo Reservation in Chinle, Arizona.
These experiences led her to believe that public health was where she could make the most impact.
"It was a natural progression to public health,'' she said. "I'll never give up individual, one-on-one care, but as I've traveled and seen things that can make a difference, I have learned that it's looking at health on a population level where you can make the biggest impact.''
Last year, Kao was named a Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellow in Minority Health Policy, an opportunity that allowed her to earn her MPH from HSPH.
While attending HSPH, Kao has also continued clinical work at MGH-Chelsea Health Care Center.
Upon receiving her MPH, Kao will join the Cambodian Health Committee, an organization co-founded by Anne Goldfeld, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, that provides HIV and TB care to patients in multiple districts of Cambodia. She will travel back and forth to Boston, continuing to work in clinical teaching and in medical care at MGH.
"It's a unique career path,'' Kao said. "I'm going to try and make it work. I love international work, but it is also important to stay up to date. And I really enjoy teaching and working clinically. The common thread is caring for people in populations that have been marginalized. I am grateful for being given this opportunity to choose my own career doing something I love, and don't want to forget how fortunate I am.''
—ML
Copyright, 2007, President and Fellows of Harvard College
