Mark Trahant above Lake Como in Italy. (Submitted photo)

Trahant excited to begin Bellagio Experience abroad

By ALEXANDRIA ALVAREZ
Sho-Ban News
FORT HALL — Mark Trahant has been selected to participate in the Bellagio Experience — a prestigious opportunity to study abroad in Italy for one month in an area so secluded and beautiful the nearest hospital is a 40-minute drive.
The Rockefeller Foundation created the Bellagio Experience to seek those who have had successful careers in leadership positions and are transitioning to new roles, people actively engaged in leading major change in the world through their current positions, and lastly young emerging leaders with substantial contribution to measurable success in the respective field.
The idea for the residency program is to allow practitioners to work on projects uninterrupted by distractions from normal life.
Trahant said, “I’m really excited and I feel incredibly fortunate for this opportunity. I hope to take advantage of it as much as possible to propel things forward. What I like about the month stay is that you can get to know a place and not just swoop in and out.” The only major requirement is to have dinner every night with the other resident’s who are from all over the world. They consist of politicians, writers, artists, and academics that enter from all over the world.
“People that have been through this residency tell me that it’s the best part of the program because you get the international exchange of ideas, build networks as well as friendships mixing and collaborating every night.”
Trahant will be working on another book, part of what he has been working on for a long time: Lessons from the Indian the Indian Health System that can apply to Health Care Reform.
Trahant hopes to experiment with this next book as an E-Book to help keep the cost down, make it more interactive, and have a chance to experiment with it similar to the new E-Book Al Gore did entitled “Our Choice.” It contains maps, interview pop-ups available for iPads and iPods. Trahant would like to make his E-Book available for both Android and Apple Apps, and create an app for his column as well. Trahant hopes that his work changes the way health care is done here in America by looking at where there is excellence in Indian health care. Often there is negativity surrounding Indian Health Care, but the approach Trahant pursues will be positive. The Alaskan Native Medical Center is as good as it gets; their facility in Alaska treat people well, keep the cost low, and make sure people don’t have to wait. 100% of the Alaskan Native Medical Center is tribally run, and is not a federally run Indian Health Service.
The problem with Health Care in the United States is that we spend enormous amounts of money on health care, having the most per capita in the world, and generally we don’t get what we pay for; the rest of the world spends considerably less, and have systems that aren’t the best but are do-able and in a lot of ways Indian Health Service is often like that as well.
The fellowship is from February 16 to March 15.