THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 18, 1994 TAG: 9408160146
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARK DUROSE, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
When the Berlin Wall fell, it took the majority of the Iron Curtain down with it, and, as a result, a window of unprecedented opportunity opened itself. It was a window that Dr. Wojciech Zolcik was eager to climb through.
Last October, Zolcik, a resident of Prague, in the former Czechoslovakia, got his chance.
Physicians For Peace, a Norfolk-based humanitarian organization that sponsors teams of medical professionals to less privileged countries, was visiting the recently liberated Czech Republic at the time. While in Prague, Walter and Jo Anne Davis, trustees of the organization, were befriended by local tour guide Lucie Zolcik, who introduced them to her husband.
Dr. Zolcik, who was beginning his residency rotation for psychiatry, met the members of Physicians for Peace and then was invited to journey to the land of the free, to learn more.
``I said sure,'' said Zolcik, whose boyish appearance makes him look younger than his 27 years. ``But it was all possible because of one of the board members of PFP, who offered me financial support, paying for my traveling expenses and living expenses.''
``Our whole focus is education,'' explained Lawrence Young, project manager for Physicians for Peace, which helps coordinate activities in more than 20 countries. ``It's an attempt to bring different doctors together to learn and then teach what they've learned.''
Physicians for Peace was founded in 1984 by Norfolk plastic surgeon Charles Horton. His reputation for developing revolutionary new procedures in his field afforded him repeated requests from abroad for apprenticeship and internship possibilities.
``Dr. Horton has been training people from around the world for 20 or 30 years,'' said medical programs director Gail Kelly. ``He saw an opportunity to use his recognition to really help people of all nations, and he went for it.
``Here in Norfolk, doctors from different countries can socialize and exchange ideas, countries that wouldn't allow that at all before, or still don't.''
Forty-nine physicians of all nationalities have been brought to Norfolk, usually at the expense of private benefactors, to study new techniques and develop their skills. These visiting professionals stay for a few weeks or up to three years.
Dr. Zolcik is on the three-year plan.
He divides his time between taking prep courses at the Kaplan Institute for his upcoming U.S. Medical Licensing Exam and observing Dr. Andrew Berger and his staff at the Portsmouth Family Medicine Center. The center is an outreach clinic for Eastern Virginia Medical School, and if all goes well with Zolcik's fall exam, he hopes to apply for a residency there when his scores come back in November.
``My point is to take this residency in family practition,'' said Zolcik, ``because we don't have that program or any such practitioners in my country.
``There was no place for family doctors in our system before. Most problems must be referred to specialists, which is not convenient or cost-effective.''
Cost will soon be a major concern for most Czechs as socialism fades and capitalism emerges. ``We're in the process of changing from state-run medicine to a more Europeanized system, with insurance and private practices,'' Zolcik explained. ``It's an interesting time while we try to learn from all the other systems around and make our own that will work.''
Zolcik explained that doctors are having to make major changes, as well, and that this opportunity was perfectly timed.
``It is a time,'' he said, ``when our people need people with experience they don't have. And it's quite different reading about it in books and journals. It's the only way to get good experience, and I thought, in this way, I can be helpful.''
Zolcik's plan is not to return to open a lucrative practice, setting himself up as the one and only Marcus Welby of the Czech medical world, but to pass on what he has learned in the hopes of helping others.
In his eight months of living in Norfolk with his wife, 4-year-old daughter Helenka, and the family Dalmatian, Zolcik has been impressed by the quality of medical care in the United States and quite pleased with Americans in general.
``In socialized medicine,'' Zolcik said, ``the patient isn't really the most important part of the process. Here, it is a very kind approach. You treat the patient like a partner in his own treatment.''
And Zolcik, a native of Warsaw, Poland, has put to rest some myths himself.
``We are taught that this is a society of consumption, and everyone just thinks of themselves,'' he explained. ``But my experiences with all people here have been great. I have not met one person I have one thing bad to say about.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARK DUROSE
Dr. Wojciech Zolcik from Prague is one of 49 doctors brought to
Norfolk by Physicians for Peace to develop their skills.
by CNB