During the summer of 2009, six United States students from the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Havana, Cuba will unite in New Orleans, Louisiana to work on a community health project, applying the Cuban preventative medicine model to describe and address community-identified barriers to health. This summer will be the start of a three year project focusing on cardiovascular disease and diabetes, two of the top five causes of death in Louisiana.
In the first year, we will conduct a non-compliance study for the Common Ground Health Clinic to investigate the reasons why patients with diabetes and/or hypertension do not follow-up with this free clinic the required minimum number of visits. This vital patient feedback will be used to improve the clinic’a approach to patient care. Also, we will visit with religious leaders from the 14 churches and mosque in Old Algiers, the neighborhood immediately surrounding the clinic, in order to understand the health concerns and barriers to health from a community perspective. The following years of the project will involve the implementation and evaluation of plans to increase compliance in hypertensive and diabetic patients of the Common Ground Health Clinic and to increase community participation in health within participating religious congregations.
Community-based medicine is defined by community participation. Physicians can and should integrally involved in improving community health. We believe the best way for us as future physicians to understand the barriers to community health in Old Algiers is via collaboration with a neighborhood clinic, religious congregations, and academic institutions. The focus of the project over the following years is for the ¡Salud! New Orleans, LA team to work with the community to address these barriers while building the necessary skills become conscienious primary care physcians.
Student Profiles
Kelly Aguilar (26 yrs) is a first year student at ELAM. She was raised in both the Washington D.C. area and El Salvador. After graduating from Smith College with a double major in Biology and Spanish Literature in 2004, she worked on a HIV vaccine clinical trials at the Walter Reed Medical Center. Kelly has done the bulk of the public health academic research for this project and is looking forward to experiencing New Orleans people and culture first-hand.
Jany Dotel (25 yrs) is a first year student at ELAM. She was born and raised in New York City and is a Dominican-American. She graduated with B.S. in Biology and a minor in Latin American studies at Union College in Scehentady, NY in 2006. From 2006-2007, she participated in Americorps HealthCorps and worked as a case manager for Urban Health Plan in the Bronx. She then worked for the New York City Health Department as a health inspector. Jany is excited to apply her public health skills and experience in a different geographical and cultural context while working on ¡Salud! New Orleans, LA.
Rebecca Fitz (30 yrs) is in her first year at ELAM. She believes in being a part of a fellowship of medical students who share a vision of making our world more unified, stronger, and healthier. She calls many places home: St. Louis, MO, Austin, TX, and McCallan, TX on the Mexico border. In 2004, Rebecca completed a B.A. in Film Studies at the University of Texas-Austin. She has extensive experience in health care administration and management, having helped to establish two community clinics in Texas.
Gina Lutz (27 yrs) is a first year student at ELAM and the primary coordinator of ¡Salud! New Orleans, LA. Though originally from Kansas City, she lived in New Orleans for three years before beginning her medical studies in Cuba and sees the brigade project as a way to give back to her home community. From 2006-2008, she was clinic manager and coordinator of the Latino Health Outreach Project at the Common Ground Health Clinic in New Orleans. She holds a B.A. in Biology from Kalamazoo College with minors in Psychology and Spanish.
Gigi Simmons (22 yrs) is a pre-med student at ELAM. While at Xavier University, where she graduated in 2008 with a B.S. Biology, she was an active member in Minority Association Premedical Students (MAPS), the Biology club, and acted as a Student Government and Dormitory Representative. She is looking forward to returning back to New Orleans to participate in the ¡Salud! New Orleans, LA, to visit family, and to eat at all her favorite restaurants.
Local Partner
Common Ground Health Clinic (CGHC)
The Common Ground Health Clinic is a non-profit organization that provides free quality health care for the greater New Orleans community, and develops and provides programs to address community health care needs through collaborative partnerships. Started as a first aid-station days after Hurricane Katrina devasted the Gulf Coast, CGHC has since become a permanent primary care clinic with more than 60,000 patient visits to date. The clinic practices include integrative medicine, health education for preventive self-care, and adherence to an anti-racist paradigm. (www.commongroundclinic.org)
Contact Info
Gina Lutz gmlutz@gmail.com, project coordinator
Donation Info
Tax deductible donations can be made to:
Common Ground Health Clinic
1400 Teche St
New Orleans, LA 70114
*Be sure to write ELAM in the memo/note line
