Examples of resident Community Medicine Projects

Residents have successfully developed and implemented community projects within the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and in partnership with other university and city departments. Several projects have been done in collaboration with a division of the Philadelphia Department of Health, with needs identified by employees of the Philadelphia Department of Health.

“Identifying and Dissolving Barriers to the City of Philadelphia Free Hepatitis B Immunization Program for Gay Men”

The resident surveyed gay men in Philadelphia to identify the barriers to using the city’s free Hepatitis A/B Immunization Program.  He then helped to develop a media campaign addressing these issues. As part of the project this resident appeared on local television along with the Philadelphia Health Commissioner to educate and encourage gay/bisexual men to be immunized. In the second phase of his project, this resident worked in the Philadelphia Community Health Alternatives Clinic where he screened and vaccinated gay/bisexual men for hepatitis A/B. One hundred men were screened, 3% tested positive for hepatitis B, no patient tested positive for hepatitis A; the negative responders were begun on a hepatitis B and/or A vaccination series.  At the end of this resident’s second project month (he added an elective time to his required community medicine month) 70% of these men returned on time for their second hepatitis vaccinations.

“Establishing the ‘Reach Out and Read Program’ in the Philadelphia City Health Clinics”

The resident collaborated with the Philadelphia Health Department and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as well as the national Reach Out and Read (ROR) Program to establish the ROR Program for children in all of the city’s health clinics. This resident’s primary responsibility was to develop and implement the pre-implementation evaluation at the health care centers around the city.  The ROR program was established and continues to run in all nine health centers caring for children within the city.

“Establishing Routines in Health Care Communication For Health Care Providers within the City of Philadelphia’s Prevention Point Clinics”

The resident worked with “Prevention Point” the city of Philadelphia’s needle exchange program. The medical person-power for this program comes from volunteer attending physicians, residents, medical students and other health care workers from 3/5 of Philadelphia’s medical schools. This resident worked with the Public Health Department to develop standardized forms of communication between the volunteers who cared for the drug-using clients at the “Prevention Point” locations. He also developed a survey to be used to better understand the health needs of the drug-users who frequent Philadelphia’s needle exchange sites. 

“Using Internet Technology to Electronically Publish a Core Set of Patient Social and Medical Information Resources”

The resident developed a project to help the city of Philadelphia further develop its web-based health resources and information educational site. The city of Philadelphia established a web site. The Department of Health was in the process of linking health resources onto the site. This resident was to help link external health educational resources to the site. The ideas behind this project were collaboratively developed and the health department implemented their web site. The educational resources section was never implemented.

“Comparing the Use of Traditional Pap Smears with the ‘ThinPrep’ Technique within the Health Clinics of the Philadelphia Health Department”

The city of Philadelphia Health Clinics had been given the “ThinPrep” Pap testing kits on a one-year trial basis in order to determine the cost effectiveness for the city to convert to the “ThinPrep” pap in Philadelphia’s Health Clinics. The resident reviewed the literature and performed chart reviews in two of the city’s health clinics. She collated data on pap test type, colposcopy utilization and pathology reports.

“Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s ‘Violence Intervention Project’”

The resident reviewed data collected by the Violence Intervention Project. This is an interventional research initiative that aims to identify and intervene with violently injured youth presenting to the emergency departments of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the Presbyterian Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. This resident established multiple research questions that might be answered by the existing data. He also spent time counseling victims of violence identified by this program.

“Establishing Adolescent Medical and Obstetrical Care at a Covenant House Shelter”The resident worked with a physician from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Covenant House Organization to establish a medical clinic and on-site health care for youth and their mothers within a Covenant House Shelter in the Germantown section of the city of Philadelphia. The clinic was established and supplies ordered. Staff were hired, policies and procedures implemented and the doors opened for business. This resident, now graduated, continues to see patients once a week at the Covenant House Medical Clinic with a full range of medical issues (including obstetrics). This Covenant House site has become part of a longitudinal elective established by this resident for herself, other residents and medical students from the five Philadelphia medical schools.

“Erasing the Barriers to Immunization of the Elderly in the City of Philadelphia: ‘Immunizations-On-The-Go’”

The resident took Fluvax and an elderly relative to nursing homes and street corners in Philadelphia dispensing influenza vaccinations to the elderly. The goal of her project was to increase the rate of influenza vaccination recipients among the elderly urban poor.

“STD Treatment and Control”

The resident counseled and treated patients at the Philadelphia Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinic.

“Violence in the Lives of Women Who Die In Philadelphia”

The resident worked with The Philadelphia Women’s Death Review Team to analyze the mortality statistics of violent deaths of adult women in the City of Philadelphia. These statistics were reviewed to ascertain the incidence and prevalence of mortality in victims of domestic violence, compare this data with data from other cities in the United States, collate data on the perpetrators, and count the number of affected, dependent children.