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Paraguayan family doctor wants to 'have a big part' in his community

Dr. Mario Feltes recently got a look at Kansas' health system and offered Kansas doctors and medical students a glimpse of conditions in his South American country.

A young doctor, from Paraguay's fledgling family medicine movement, got a look at Kansas' health system recently.

In return, Dr. Mario Feltes offered Kansas doctors and medical students a glimpse of conditions in his South American country.

"In Paraguay, family medicine is kind of new," Feltes told an audience at the KU School of Medicine–Wichita. He estimated that there are probably no more than 500 family physicians in the country of seven million people. But he said the government has recently focused on training more family physicians, along with promoting community preventive and educational activities.

Feltes' visit to Kansas was part of a long-standing relationship between his country and the Wichita medical school campus, which has for many years sent faculty members to Paraguay.

During his visit, Feltes toured clinics and hospitals in Wichita, Salina, and Newton.

Feltes described Paraguay as a country with a relatively young population, and a big health gap between rich and poor.

In order to have affordable transportation, "Everybody has a motorcycle," he said. And that leads to lots of injuries resulting from accidents.

And because healthy food is expensive, he said, "We don't eat well in Paraguay. Poor people are fat, rich people are skinny."

High teen pregnancy rates, hypertension, diarrhea, circulatory problems, and the mosquito-transmitted tropical disease called dengue fever are some of the other leading health problems his country has to address.

Dengue is confined to cities, where it could be easily prevented by stopping stagnant water from accumulating in unsanitary environments, he said.

Rural areas are seriously underserved by doctors, most of whom are paid by the government and choose to settle in cities as specialists rather than general practitioners.

"You get a good salary but no one wants to go there," he said of rural areas.

The critical shortage of physicians in small towns and rural areas is a problem both Paraguay and Kansas have in common.

Feltes, 28, who finished his residency last year, said his decision to focus on family medicine stems in part from his own family's medical legacy. His father and older brother are both surgeons.

"They don't have a big part in the community and I want that. I like it." Family doctors there, as here, typically play an important role in the lives of their patients, and in the community itself.

According to Dr. Rick Kellerman, chair of the KU School of Medicine–Wichita's Department of Family and Community Medicine, Feltes has been targeted for a leadership role by Paraguay's medical establishment.

Feltes said that may be in his future, but for now he wants simply to practice family medicine.


KU School of Medicine-Wichita