Doctors
group offers care to Canadians sick in foreign countries
The old don't-leave-home-without-it
slogan could be applied to a little blue and white booklet
that fits in a pocket and should be packed by every English-speaker
venturing abroad.
It's titled International Association for Medical Assistance
to Travellers (IAMAT), and contains the names, addresses and
phone numbers of about 500 doctors in 125 countries, all of
whom meet a standard that should provide competent care to
those who become ill or injured in foreign countries.
The non-profit organization reviews the qualifications
of each physician it adds to its directory. All "must be fully
licensed in their own country, must have received postgraduate
training in a western country, and be fluent in English."
Each must subscribe to a fee schedule set for IAMAT
members -- $55 for an office visit, $75 for a house (hotel)
call or night appointment (9 p.m. to 9 a.m.), $95 on Sundays
and holidays (all figures in U.S. dollars).
IAMAT sprang from an incident in 1960, when Dr. Vincenzo
Marcolongo received a call from the Canadian Embassy in Rome.
Marcolongo was known to the embassy doctor because he had
studied medicine at McGill University in Montreal.
In this case, he was consulted about a young Canadian
woman who was gravely ill in a Rome hospital. Italian doctors
could not figure out what was wrong with her.
When Marcolongo learned she had been prescribed a painkiller,
he had the clue he needed. Because of his training in Canada,
Marcolongo knew that the drug, while harmless to Latins, could
be life-threatening to Anglo-Saxons. That quick diagnosis,
helped by his ability to speak with the patient in English,
led to treatment and full recovery.
It also sparked an idea. Marcolongo contacted other
doctors in Italy who had received training in North America.
He began forming a network that became the foundation of IAMAT.
He continued to expand the list after he emigrated to Canada
in 1964. Marcolongo, who settled in Toronto, died in 1988.
His widow, Assunta Uffer-Marcolongo of Guelph, Ont., is now
president of the organization, which has offices in Guelph,
Toronto, New York, New Zealand and Switzerland.
Membership is free and anyone can sign up online, at
http://www.iamat.org/; by mail (40 Regal Road,
Guelph, Ont. N1K 1B5; or Suite 1 -- 1287 St. Clair Ave. W.,
Toronto, Ont. M6E 1B8); or by phone: 519-836-0102, 416-652-0137.
Members receive the booklet and a membership card, as
well as other benefits. Those on safari in East Africa, for
example, can buy a one-time membership -- $25 per person covering
Kenya and Tanzania; $50 for Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi --
from the Flying Doctor's Society of Africa, based in Dar-Es-Salaam,
which offers emergency air-ambulance service from the Serengeti
and other remote locations.
