Exploring Future Opportunities in Teaching Medical Students
- REI
- May 14
- 3 min read
Dr. Austin Raunikar is a pediatric cardiologist from Greenville, South Carolina, working at Pristine Health. He has partnered with REI for 24 years, making 12 medical trips to Vietnam. Last year, Dr. Raunikar made his first short-term medical trip to Uzbekistan, seeking to understand the scope of the need and making connections.
This past March 2025, Dr. Raunikar led a short-term medical team of seven, a physician assistant, nurses and dietitians, back to Samarkand, Uzbekistan for his second trip to the country. The team’s priority was to set a foundation and establish an REI medical program here. To summarize the trip, associate country leader to Uzbekistan Jill Vernon made this comment: “You are an amazing medical team. It was a privilege to work together. You have laid a foundation for building upon and opened doors for walking through. I am excited to see where this will lead and hope we can continue to work with the Master Builder.”
Dr. Raunikar answers some of our questions here, helping to provide a clearer picture of what kind of lasting impact these short-term professional trips can have.
How long have you been connected with REI? When and where did you go for your first short-term professional team trip?
“I’ve been connected with REI since August 2001, when I made my first trip to Hanoi and Hue, Vietnam. I’ve worked with pediatric and OB and ENT teams.”
What inspired you to begin volunteering your time like this with REI in the first place?
“I enjoy teaching and was looking to combine career with international service. I had taught in Venezuela, India and People’s Republic of China in 1993-1999, and then I was invited by local friends to join a team to Vietnam. At first, I mainly went to get to know my colleagues from US better in a unique setting, and I also wanted to see if Vietnam could be a place I could return to again and again. Little did I know . . .”
What inspired you to go on your first trip to Uzbekistan?
“After I needed to take a hiatus from participating on short-term medical teams, due to hospital leadership and Covid, I wanted to resume my participation. But I had a sense that work in Vietnam had reached its feasible peak and perhaps the need to work there wasn’t the same. Also, I thought it would be fun to connect with REI friends from Vietnam now working in Uzbekistan. When was that? Fall 2024.”
What did this recent trip to Uzbekistan include? Who participated and what did you do?
“For this recent trip in March 2025, our team was linked to another trip to Central Asia and I was in the area, so I ended up getting to come back earlier than intended, in the spring rather than the fall of 2025. My team included a critical care nurse practitioner educator and registered nurse as well as a physicians assistant who has been working in Tajikistan but came to join our team. Our intended focus for this trip was for teaching and exploring future opportunities.”
What was the highlight of your recent trip?
“It was seeing the team serve, hearing their stories of work and growth and challenges faced.”
What was the most challenging thing about your recent trip?
“Our trip fell atop several religious holidays and limited hospital leadership availability because of that. Also, there was an EU conference with Central Asia leadership that same week and this shut down part of the city, which limited our ability to make contacts and connect, and this meant we only had one evening meal with hospital leaders and two lectures.”
What are you hoping for in any future trips?
“I want to explore returning to Uzbekistan if the medical community there has clear requests and needs. I’m also open to looking at other locations with similar needs where a medical team would be able to teach medical students and residents.”
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