Cody resident to discuss
medicine in Middle East

At a time when Americans struggle to understand the social dynamics at work in the Middle East, Cody resident Nancy Backlund offers her insight into the cultural influences on health care on the Arabia peninsula Thursday, Dec. 8, at Northwest College.

Her program, titled “Medicine in the Middle East,” begins at 7:30 p.m. in Room 70 of the Fagerberg Building on campus. It’s sponsored by the NWC Multicultural Events Series.

Drawing on seven years at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSHRC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Backlund, currently a staff technologist at West Park Hospital in Cody, will offer a short history of Saudi Arabia and of Islam, and then explore the juxtaposition of Islam, religion and medicine in Saudi Arabia.
She’ll talk specifically about the KFSHRC where she spent four years as a staff technologist in the crossmatch section of transfusion services, two years as senior technologist in the component processing section of donor services and 18 months as supervisor of transfusion in the blood bank.

More broadly, she’ll discuss health care management in a closed theocratic society and Saudi Arabia’s health care problems in general.

Backlund earned her bachelor’s degree in medical technology from the University of Wyoming in 1973. Her 32 years of medical technology experience also includes a position at Denver Children’s Hospital upon her return to the United States in 2002.

Admission to this Northwest Cultural Multicultural Events Series presentation is free.