In mid-1998, the U.S. Department of State implemented a “Support for the Cuban People” program that promoted licensed professional exchanges and people-to-people humanitarian programs between Cuban and U.S. citizens. John Freedman, MD, who had been well regarded as a volunteer in the ASA Overseas Teaching Program in Africa, received an invitation from the State Department via Bob Everett, the president of an organization called U.S. Exchanges, which specialized in people-to-people professional exchange programs. The invitation was to organize and lead a delegation for a professional exchange in Havana and its environs. The events leading to the invitation began with Zambian anesthesiologists enthusiastically telling their Cuban colleagues about Dr. Freedman after he volunteered there. Those conversations resulted in a letter from Cuban anesthesiologists to the State Department requesting formal contact with their U.S. counterparts, simply because they were eager to share knowledge and collegial relationships with U.S. physicians. Cuban physicians were well regarded internationally but had had very little contact with their U.S. counterparts for 40 years.
