Phnom Penh, Cambodia - Virtual

Date: Flexible

Partner: Health Volunteers Overseas

Cost: There is no cost to be a volunteer, however HVO membership is encouraged.

About Health Volunteers Overseas: Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO) is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the availability and quality of health care through the education, training, and professional development of the health workforce in resource-scarce countries. Working collaboratively with our partners abroad, HVO volunteers engage in activities such as delivering didactic and clinical trainings, offering case consultations, providing curricular input for teaching institutions, or revising administrative and clinical procedures for health care facilities. While in-person volunteer assignments are on hiatus due to COVID-19, HVO is offering remote volunteer opportunities. In 2021, HVO volunteers provided over 4,000 hours of e-learning and online support to health professionals at over 45 different institutions. Once travel is possible again, both in-person and remote volunteer opportunities will be available.

About the Mission: Volunteers are needed to provide didactic lectures online. Primary trainees for this project include the pediatric and adult physician oncologists-hematologists at Calmette Hospital.

Pediatric and adult hematology-oncology clinicians or laboratory-based scientists are suitable for this project. Volunteers must be board certified in hematology and/or blood banking. Volunteers licensed and practicing in the US are required to be members of the American Society of Hematology or the British Society of Hematology. Individuals with a PhD must be certified in hematopathology or pathology with demonstrated experience in hematopathology. Experienced volunteers who are retired and without a current license are eligible.

Calmette Hospital is a national hospital with 750 beds and 100 percent occupancy. Opened in 2012, the oncology unit has 24 beds for both pediatric and adult patients. There is also a newly established National Cancer Center (NCC), which has 53 rooms and units for medical oncology, pediatric oncology, radiation oncology, nuclear medicine, hematology and bone marrow transplantation, and palliative care. The hospital also has a new bone marrow transplant wing. Calmette Hospital has all the relevant equipment to provide basic hematology and oncology care, including IV fluids, antibiotics, chemotherapy agents; however, the hospital’s blood supply is limited, and it experiences shortages of chemotherapy and other medicines typical of other Cambodian hospitals.