UTMB students see real lives of the uninsured
GALVESTON, Texas - What’s believed to be one of the poorest community in the United States, Cameron Park, a colonia on the Texas-Mexico border, may well present the nation with a model for delivering cost-effective preventive health care to those who can’t afford it.
From its modest beginnings out of the back of a station wagon loaded with donated supplies, students at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have built Frontera de Salud, an all-volunteer organization founded in 1998, into a viable infrastructure offering a full-service clinic, basic check-ups, well-woman exams and screening and preventive services to the underserved residents of Cameron Park.
In addition to the founding chapter at UTMB, Frontera has grown to include health science centers in San Antonio and Houston and has expanded to serve communities in and around Laredo, San Antonio, Corpus Christi and Galveston. The most recent testament of its success is an endorsement by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, allotting $6 million to UTMB’s Stark Diabetes Center to roll out a statewide diabetes prevention program based on Frontera’s work in Cameron Park.
The first Frontera weekend trip of the 2009-10 academic year is scheduled for September 18-20.
As volunteers with Frontera de Salud, medical, nursing and health professions students at UTMB make weekend trips to Cameron Park throughout the school year, seeing uninsured patients with little to no health care options. A largely Hispanic demographic, with low health literacy and a nearly two-year backlog at the nearest free clinic, make Cameron Park a telling microcosm of the health care crisis in the United States and a vast training ground for this next generation of health care practitioners.
“Whether it’s performing a pelvic exam on a 40-year-woman who has never had a pap smear or teaching a family how to use a thermometer on their infant child, our students provide much needed services, while gaining an altruistic sense of purpose and service that the practice of medicine embodies,” said UTMB’s Dr. Kirk Smith, associate professor of medicine, one of the original student founders and the current faculty director. “It’s just one example of how UTMB integrates hands-on learning into the curriculum starting from day one of a student’s medical education.” To date, more than 1,200 students have seen over 10,000 patients through Frontera.
The Frontera model emphasizes disease prevention and community-integrated care to lower costs and offer solutions specific to the medical and cultural needs of the patient population. On a typical weekend trip, students go into the community to screen for diseases common in Hispanics including diabetes, hypertension and depression. House calls, another major component of the weekend, take medicine back to a long-forgone practice, enabling students to connect with patients and observe the lifestyle that drives their behavior and health care choices.
UTMB was established in 1891 as the University of Texas Medical Department and has grown from one building, 23 students and 13 faculty members to a modern health science center. The 84-acre campus includes four schools, three institutes for advanced study, a major medical library, a network of hospitals and clinics that provide a full range of primary and specialized medical care and numerous research facilities. UTMB is a component of the University of Texas System.
For More Information
A video about Frontera de Salud:
www.utmb.edu/frontera/frontera.ram
Frontera de Salud web site:
www.utmb.edu/frontera/
Interviews with student participants:
http://fronteraownwords.blogspot.com/