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Good Health Begins with Good Dental Care
Frontera's primary partner is the Brownsville Community Health Center which supplies the students with clinical facilities and support staff for monthly well-woman examinations on Saturdays. On Sundays, at the community center of Iglesia San Felipe in Cameron Park, Frontera screens neighborhood patients' blood pressure and blood glucose, as well as looking for other disorders such as depression and domestic violence.
As important as delivering medical care, Kirk Smith says, is for Frontera to continue to earn the trust of its patients.
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UTMB students discuss patient cases at a Brownsville clinic |
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“Too many student programs end up just making people feel good,” he says. “We don't want to do that. We have to have follow-up in the community for the conditions we diagnose when we come here.”
At the same time, Dr. Smith and the students who work with him hope they are at the forefront of changes in the medical and health professions.
“Medicine has made the mistake of adopting a business model,” Dr. Smith says. “We're losing our professional identity because of this corporate model. We need to go back and become the profession we want it to be.”
For Sharon Gerardo, UTMB medical student, “going back” has an even more specific meaning. She went to high school in the Valley and wants to return someday to practice medicine.
“I can't imagine going anywhere else,” she says.
-- Ruth Pennebaker
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