Leonel Fernández negotiates Agreement with the New York Presbyterian Hospital to Benefit Medical Students and Professionals

The former Dominican President and honorary President of Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD) and Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE), Dr. Leonel Fernández, visited Columbia University’s Presbyterian Hospital, to begin laying the groundwork with its authorities for the signing of an inter-agency exchange agreement that would benefit medical students and professionals from both the Dominican Republic and the United States.

Dr. Rafael Lantigua, Professor at the School of Medicine and Director of the Clinic for Internal Medicine at Columbia University, said that former President Fernández’s visit responded to an invitation issued by the hospital authorities. In addition to speaking with hospital authorities, the former Dominican Head of
State, accompanied by Dr. Lantigua and together with the Executive Director of FUNGLODE, Dr. Marco Herrera, and the accompanying delegation of Dominican businessmen, toured the facilities, including the Neurological Intensive Care Unit.

“The idea is to establish clinical, educational and research exchanges between Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo and Columbia University,” Dr. Marco Herrera said at the end of the tour.

“We believe that the conditions exist at this time to allow us to make exchanges at all levels, from the medical level, i.e., the exchange of students and professionals, as well as host conferences of mutual interest in the area of health,” the Executive Director of FUNGLODE said.

Herrera explained that the future agreements will also allow students from Columbia University to go to the Dominican Republic to conduct research for their theses
or dissertations, for which they will receive support and collaboration from FUNGLODE.“We are saying that the students will go to Santo Domingo and will have supervisors that will work with them, as well as Dominican students will come here (to the U.S.) to conduct specialized studies,” he said.

He informed that, according to what was discussed between former President Fernández and the hospital authorities, the agreement will also create the
conditions for exchanges between medical professionals from both countries to take place.

About NY Presbyterian
Considered by the U.S. News and World Report magazine as the sixth in the United States, the New York Presbyterian Hospital (New York-Presbyterian Hospital / Columbia University Medical Center) is a leading university hospital that was founded in 1868.

The hospital has three medical facilities:
the Columbia University Medical Center, the Weill Cornell Medical Center and the Allen Hospital.Considered as one of the most comprehensive university medical centers in the world, the hospital has specialists in every medical specialty.