CVAHEC Student Project Reports

Elaine Parker
Summer Docs Program

Standing at the front of conference room 1 at Northwest Medical Center, I waited for the minutes to pass and watched doctors and other health personnel stare curiously into the room. As they passed, they eyed the Fresh Market lunch provided for those who attended the lunch meeting and stared at the Ladies First sign marking the door.

The Ladies First representative, Sheila and I exchanged looks, gauging the attendees and the people still entering the room sporadically. We attempted to decide the ideal moment to start our PowerPoint presentation on the Ladies First program, obesity and metabolic syndrome.

Only a month earlier, I attended an informative evening seminar in the very same room with various doctors, representatives from health-related agencies and other health personnel who provided services to women in Franklin county.

The sheer number and diversity of services was truly amazing. I learned that as a much more rural area than Burlington, Franklin county faces challenges and barriers to medical care. For example, some women cannot attend existing doctor appointments due to lack of childcare and transportation.

Moreover, some services such as nutritional counseling and annual cancer screening are unaffordable and inaccessible for patients. This seminar provided me with insights into barriers to medical care in more rural areas. Moreover, I realized the major impact of social and cultural life on medical care and health.

At the time of the first seminar, I already wanted to work with the Ladies First program, a federally-funded program that provides free mammograms, Pap tests as well as screening for cholesterol, diabetes and blood pressure for income-eligible women.

Ladies First recently added new services that comprise therapeutic lifestyle interventions. The program assists with smoking cessation, provides nutritional counseling and monitors the components of metabolic syndrome. However, many doctors and other health personnel are unaware of the newly added services.

Moreover, as the concept of metabolic syndrome is a relatively new one in medicine, education seemed to be needed for health providers. Normally, a Ladies First representative would adopt the task of performing research, creating a presentation and educating health personnel in Franklin county. However, the position had been cut from the grant and never refilled.

After two weeks of research on metabolic syndrome and obesity, Sheila and I created a PowerPoint presentation. We scheduled rooms at the Northwest medical center for two lunch seminars and set out to invite as a many office staff, doctors, nurses and other health personnel.

We called over thirty doctors affiliated with the hospital and invited entire offices. Our hope was to reach out to the office and billing staff who could alert women who are eligible and have them enroll in the program. Doctors, nurses and other health personnel would measure the various components of metabolic syndrome and urge patients to pursue interventional lifestyle changes. They would alert patients to the dangers of the constellation of results that comprise metabolic syndrome.

I looked out into the conference room, as health personnel and office staff waited for me to begin my presentation on metabolic syndrome, obesity and Ladies First.

Dr. Holmes, a Mousetrap pediatrician I worked with for the past week, waved as he walked by the open door. I realized with a smile that my goals for the summer had been reached.