Dr. Maggie Carpenter – Family Practitioner & Founder of Go Doc Go, Preventing Cervical Cancer Internationally
Dr. Maggie Carpenter is on a mission. Since visiting Ethiopia professionally in 2011, this philanthropic family physician has been providing cervical cancer prevention to women in previously neglected areas in Ethiopia, Senegal, Haiti through her international non-profit, Go Doc Go.
“We don’t do cervical cancer screening,” Dr. Carpenter recalls the Ethiopian doctor stating as they passed the pathology lab. “What do you do when you receive an advanced case?” she asked. “We keep them comfortable,” he replied.
Such negligence is routine in countries where unmanageable daily challenges are legion, and survival is the primary goal. According the Go Doc Go’s website, “the women in these areas are at high risk for cervical cancer due to the lack of screening programs and the widespread prevalence of the Human Papiloma Virus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer.
Go Doc Go trains midwives, residents and physicians in these countries on how to screen women for cervical cancer using VIA (Visual Inspection with acetic acid), and extremely effective and inexpensive technique that uses vinegar to detect precancerous activity.”
As challenging as cervical cancer prevention is internationally, Dr. Carpenter – who soon hopes to tackle breast cancer abroad – claims domestic navigation is even more demanding. “Gosh, it’s so hard to work here,” she said. “It’s so much easier to work in other countries.”
Despite that, she’s also launched “The Box”, allowing those who might otherwise avoid pap smears stateside to treat themselves in Port-a-Potty style, human-sized boxes readily available at public events.
“When women go in and do it and come out they go, ‘That was awesome!’” she said. “’That was so much better than having a pelvic exam, or having to go to my doctor.’”