ECHN Family Medicine Global Health Fundraiser

Hi my name is Kimberly Davis and I am part of our ECHN Family Medicine Global Health Committee. Since 2016, we have partnered with Dr Messinger, Orthopaedic Solutions to Surgical Access (OSSA), and the internal medicine resident program at the Public Hospital in San Marcos to bring medical supplies and standardized medical practices to the patients in San Marcos.

 

Since this program began we have started programs in Basic Life Saving and Advanced Cardiac Life Saving classes to teach hospital employees, firefighters, and police officers these skills. This year we have two projects that we would like to be involved with. Firstly, we are also partnering this year with OSSA to help raise money for Club Foot Solutions to help provide braces to individuals with club foot. Our goal is to help OSSA with sending 400 braces to Guatemala this year. Secondly, we are hoping to partner with the medical residents in implementing a women's health initiative for cervical cancer screening to include standardized Pap smear screening. In Guatemala, cervical cancer is much more prevalent than it is in the United States. This is because there are fewer supplies for this, fewer places to be tested, and there are language barriers between providers and patients. We are hoping to help bring in supplies and train providers to test patients to support this initiative.

 

This coming spring, we are planning to take a group of residents, medical students, and attendings to Guatemala to put these plans into motion. We will work in both the clinic and the hospital setting for a week to distribute supplies and to teach providers about our screening guidelines for Pap smears.

 

We appreciate any help that you may be able to provide including supplies, financial support, or moral support. All funds will go towards these initiatives in partnership with OSSA.  Thank you so much for your help in bringing these medical practices to the Public Hospital in San Marcos!