Submitted by Penn Highlands Healthcare
In the United States, National Doctors’ Day is observed on March 30 to honor physicians for the role they play in the lives of their patients and their communities. Penn Highlands Healthcare has 849 physicians who provide a wide range of care and treatments at locations throughout 26 counties in Pennsylvania. Some Penn Highlands Healthcare physicians do not allow county, state or continental borders to keep them from providing care where it is needed.
Bringing better health to diverse populations
Dr. Shane Sergent believes in identifying disease before it happens — not just treating it. Sergent, who is an emergency medicine physician and the Central Region medical director of emergency medicine at Penn Highlands Healthcare, shares his skills and expertise beyond the U.S. borders in Central and South America. He was the previous president of DOCARE International, a medical outreach organization dedicated to sustainable health care and education in under-resourced communities around the world. Sergent also served as clinical faculty and medical director of global health and research at Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Institute of International Health, and as clinical faculty and professor honorario at Universidad César Vallejo in Trujillo, Peru. He has been involved with MSUCOM’s Peru Outreach program since 2009.
Sergent began going outside the U.S. in 2009 with a medical trip to the Andes Mountains. Since then, he and his wife, a fellow physician, accompanied by their daughter, have provided health care in Peru. He also has been on medical trips to Belize and Guatemala.
“I have been to a lot of different locations,” said Sergent. “Most recently, we have been focused on developing health care access in the Peru Amazon River region, working closely with physicians there. When we visit remote communities, we have worked in hospitals, churches and even off boats.”
Treating both children and adults, Sergent has been providing care for communicable and non-communicable diseases as the region grows.
“We do a lot of medical screening and offer medications for disease maintenance and treatment,” Sergent said. “We have incorporated research into our trips to look at disease prevention with water quality and vaccinations. Much of the research we do is focused on environmental impacts of health.”
Sergent finds the time he spends in Central and South America to be an invaluable experience.
“I truly appreciate the opportunities I have had working with these populations. I feel that it has improved my development of being a physician, honed my ability to think like a researcher and made me more aware of health disparities. I hope to continue this support in our local communities in the same capacity.”
Inspired to help our troops and the underserved
Growing up in Jakarta, Indonesia, Dr. Michelle Mouria, a board-certified surgeon specializing in trauma emergencies with Penn Highlands General Surgery in DuBois, witnessed religious and racial struggles among different groups. At the age of 17, when she emigrated to the U.S. with her family, she embraced the freedoms and protections that this country offers and pursued an education in medicine.
“I used my newfound opportunities and was inspired by the chance to address the societal inequities in health care that I witnessed firsthand, as well as the global crisis characterized by war, famine, poverty and disease,” Mouria explained. “I decided to pursue a career in surgery in order to provide the most immediate and life-saving care to patients most desperately in need.”
Mouria served as a general surgeon at a hospital in Chicago and at a variety of stations throughout the U.S., Guam and Cambodia to reach out to populations in need. In 2019, when she heard stories from a patriotic Marine combat veteran, she was strongly motivated to join the Army Medical Reserve.
“Listening to stories about his deployment in Afghanistan, I realized that my passion to help others in dire need in austere humanitarian environments could be extended to our soldiers — the most worthy men and women who sacrifice to defend our country,” Mouria explained. “I want to help our injured soldiers at the most forward front line; to do life-saving trauma surgery so they can make it back home.”
Mouria was deployed to Syria with her forward surgical team in 2022 to perform resuscitative damage control surgery and to stabilize severely injured soldiers so they could be transported for further definitive repair of their injuries. The team was also ready to provide care to potential civilian casualties and the local coalition force.
In December 2023 and January 2024, Mouria volunteered in a missionary hospital in Zambia through the World Medical Mission. While in Southern Africa, with limited resources, she provided surgical care such as emergency C-sections, hysterectomies and pediatric and adult hernia surgeries as well as intestinal and wound care. She also provided training to family physicians there, teaching them surgical procedures.
“Providing care to injured soldiers and in underserved hospitals is humbling, yet a rewarding endeavor in the server of these patients,” Mouria added.
Penn Highlands Healthcare was formed in 2011 and is comprised of eight hospitals. Penn Highlands State College, a new hospital with a patient-centric design and atmosphere, is slated to open in summer 2024.
