Waco Physician Presents Global Issues Lecture

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Dr. Mike Hardin Jr., a 1987 Baylor University graduate and currently a family physician in Waco, will present "Missions, Medicine and Culture: A Perspective from the Ecuadorian Amazon" at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8, in Draper 116 on the Baylor campus.

Hardin's lecture is part of the Global Issues series, presented by the Center for International Education at Baylor.

His interactive lecture, which is free and open to the public, will engage students in Hardin's real-life examples of his time in Ecuador. He will demonstrate the difference in culture and the conflicts that arise in that situation and how doctors manage those issues.

"The doctor may think the patient's ailment is a biomedical cause. The patient, however, has a very strong culture in folk medicine and may have another reason [for their sickness]," Hardin said.

Hardin earned his Baylor degree in biology and computer science and graduated with his medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and served for four years as a medical missionary at Hospital Vozandes del Oriente, a 30-bed mission hospital located in Ecuador. Hardin is currently a faculty member of the Family Medicine Residency Program in Waco.

"I [want] to open someone's box up a little bit and expand their horizons. America is only about three percent of the world they live in."

The Center for International Education seeks to ensure positive experiences for international students and faculty and emphasize the contributions of internationals to the diversity and richness of Baylor's student body.

For more information about the Global Issues Lecture, contact Dr. Lilly Souza-Fuertes, coordinator of the Global Issues Series at (254) 710-4531.

by Colton Wright, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805