Dr. Leo Lagasse has a prescription for third world nation building: improve the healthcare of women. Eight years ago, the Gyn-oncologist and parishioner at Our Lady of Malibu Church co-founded Medicine for Humanity with Dr. Robert Greenburg to advance the state of women's health in developing countries.

Lagasse, a surgeon at Cedars-Sinai and Kaiser Hospitals in Los Angeles, believes that one of the most effective ways to improve any society is to help its women. Sharing his conviction are more than 100 medical professionals from prestigious teaching hospitals in the U.S. who have volunteered on Medicine for Humanity trips to 16 nations.

"We are dedicated to the elimination of social, economic and cultural barriers to women's healthcare," said Lagasse, recently returned from a mission trip to Ethiopia, Eritrea and Kenya where he performed Gyn-oncologic surgeries working alongside local surgeons. "Improving the health of women advances the welfare of children, the family, the community and the nation."

In contrast to medical organizations primarily focusing on disease prevention and palliation (pain relief) programs, Medicine for Humanity seeks to achieve an immediate impact in women's health by creating sustainable programs to reduce the death rate from cervical cancer and to repair birth-related interior organ trauma injuries.

"We are committed to an immediate and significant reduction in the death rate from cervical cancer in a world where three-quarters of all women with the disease live in developing countries," said Lagasse. Currently, he asserted, screening programs in these countries have had little or no effect on mortality, resulting in an automatic death sentence for those contracting the disease.

"These women do not have to die! Even patients who are in an advanced stage of the disease have the chance of being cured. This empowers women, places value on their lives and acknowledges their importance to their families and communities," said Lagasse.

On Medicine for Humanity's trip to East Africa last January, the team focused on repairing women's fistulas (holes in the bladder) sustained during difficult births. One patient whose fistula was successfully repaired had been injured during a prolonged six-day labor. Women's birth-related injuries are not uncommon in this region lacking sufficient medical care access where it can take over a day to travel to the nearest hospital.

One of Lagasse's goals is to help build a medical school in Eritrea, a predominately Muslim country on the shores of the Red Sea. He is convinced that, without good medical care, under-developed countries simply won't improve. Education and training of the local medical community is always a top priority on the two-week medical mission trips.

Since 1995, Medicine for Humanity teams have worked in the Philippines, South Africa, Mexico, Malawi, Mongolia, Nepal, Uzbekistan, Poland, Croatia, Costa Rica, Panama, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Kenya, as well as on American Indian reservations in Arizona and South Dakota.

"It's been very inspirational for the participants," said Lagasse. "Nobody comes back without being moved."

Dr. Kristin Keefe, 42, a surgeon at Brigham Women's Hospital at Harvard Medical School, said the experience of volunteering for Medicine for Humanity has "truly changed my life."

"Doing what we're doing is like touching the hand of God," said Keefe, who charges purchases on her credit cards to get frequent flyer miles to pay for airfare, averaging $2,000 per trip. The Massachusetts-based Keefe flew to Bangladesh with Medicine for Humanity last October and will travel to Africa with the non-profit international charitable group this June.

According to Keefe, Medicine for Humanity is the only international medical organization of its kind in the third world. "We're not only helping to improve women's healthcare, participants come back and see how fortunate we are. So many people have nothing.

"Over there, you have to learn to function in battlefield conditions," said Keefe. For example, on the recent Bangladesh trip, doctors had to hand-sew body organs because medical staples were unavailable. Gloves and needles are sterilized and reused for surgery.

Keefe scoffs at those who dismiss Medicine for Humanity's contribution to developing countries. "There are 500 women in Niger, Africa, just waiting for fistula surgery," said Keefe. "Would it make a difference if those women were helped? Of course; women often run the economy.

"I'm very hopeful that I am making a difference by directly helping women and bringing their stories back to this country," Keefe declared. "It's important to try to have some impact on the entropy occurring in the world."

Recent Medicine for Humanity participant, Dr. Jill Satorie, 30, an OB/Gyn resident at UCLA Medical Center, said her January trip to Eritrea was "incredible."

"It was a great thrill to work with top-notch surgeons in such a warm, appreciative environment," said Satorie, who was encouraged to go on the trip by Dr. Gautam Chaudhuri, professor and chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at UCLA's School of Medicine. Drs. Chaudhuri and Satorie hope to set up a permanent rotation for residents to participate in Medicine for Humanity missions beginning this September.

"Medicine for Humanity makes a great impact on the people it serves," said Satorie, who attends St. Monica Church in Santa Monica. "The patients see people from the U.S. caring for them, performing complex surgeries. Many lives could well have been saved by those surgeries."

On one of her days off in Eritrea, Satorie was given a tour of local hospitals by the health minister of the country. Medicine for Humanity's respect for local medical personnel and its ongoing collaborative relationships with health care institutions in the regions it serves has earned it a sterling reputation as well as numerous invitations for return trips.

"The world is very much closer today," said Dr. Lagasse. "You can go into the world and do things that will astonish people. In societies where people don't look like they have a chance, you will see change. It's a new world."

For more information on Medicine for Humanity, contact Dr. Lagasse at lagasse@cyberhotline.com.