Family Doctor to Teach in Armenia
Four-month visit offers chance to aid ancestral country
``I always wanted to go back and try to give more,'' he says of his upcoming trip to Armenia.


BY LIZA BERGER
KENOSHA NEWS


Dr. Nicholas Akgulian, a family practice physician at St. Catherine's Medical Campus West in Kenosha, loves his practice. So when an opportunity came his way to go to Armenia for four months to teach doctors about primary care medicine, he was torn.

``I love the patient interaction '85 I like my colleagues and I really enjoy the staff,'' he said ``That's why it's hard to leave.''

But Akgulian, 41, who will depart at the end of August and will return in early 2002, says he decided he could not pass up what he sees as a oncein-a-lifetime chance to help people in his ancestral country.

``I always wanted to go back and try to give more,'' said Akgulian, who is 100 percent Armenian.

Akgulian has been to Armenia twice before, once in 1984 when it was still a republic in the former Soviet Union and once in 1992 to aid earthquake victims and refugees from neighboring Azerbaijan. It is his first time going for medical purposes.

His role is to teach eight Armenian doctors, four pediatricians and four internists to be family practitioners in the capital city of Yerevan. He said the concept of outpatient care has not yet reached the former communist country that became sovereign almost 10 years ago. Right now most of the care is specialty-based.

``Their knowledge is good,'' he said. ``Their practical skills aren't really developed.''

He learned of the position from an Armenian doctor in Boston. The World Bank is funding his expenses for three to four months. The U.S. Agency for International Development is also involved in the project, he said. Accompanying Akgulian will be a translator. But he will be the only American in the group.

He does not know what to expect, but he is looking forward to the challenge.

It is ``something I've always dreamed of doing,'' said Akgulian, who has been in family practice for six years.

International experiences have always interested Akgulian, who spent over a year in Europe following medical school. This year, he used his vacation time to go to Belize on two two-week stints to provide medical care at a clinic.

One of the main things he learns when he travels is that one does not need a lot to be happy. When he was in Belize he lived above a clinic in a small village where, he said, people's lives extended 20 miles in either direction. A stick and ball could entertain a child for hours, he said.

Experiences like these remind him how good Americans have it.

``We're lucky to have the health care system we do have,'' he said.

Going to Armenia carries special significance for Akgulian because of his heritage. His grandparents, who are from eastern Turkey, came to Racine after Armenians were forced out of the country in 1915.

When he was growing up, Akgulian attended Armenian school, and he is well connected with the Armenian community in Racine. He has gone back twice to the area in Turkey that was formerly Armenia and located the area of his grandfather's house. There are no Armenians left in the area, he said.

This trip, he said, is one of his last chances to master the language.

While he is sad to leave his patients here, he thinks this international experience will make him a better doctor when he comes back.

``It keeps you grounded,'' he said.