Our faculty member, Anna Goroncy MD, was awarded one of five STFM New Faculty Advocacy Scholarships to attend the annual Family Medicine Advocacy Summit in Washington, D.C fromMay 18-20. This year the group focused on promoting health policy changes around issues we see everyday. Specifically meeting with staff of Sen. Rob Portman, Sen. Sherrod Brown and Rep. Brad Wenstrup to discuss the importance of gun violence prevention, GME funding for teaching health centers, the congressional primary care caucus and rural workforce production. Our residency is committed to building physicians who are advocates for change. We usually send at least one physician to the national summit and a delegation to the Ohio Advocacy Day every year.

Some of the 30 students who are on the “Road to Medicine”

Ms. Collins’ science lab at Frederick Douglass Elementary is the place to be! One afternoon you might find pairs of students bent over a sheep heart dissection, learning anatomy for the first time. The next week, the group might be acting as “doctor detectives” working on an interactive medicine case with help from a diverse panel of healthcare professionals.

This is the “Road to Medicine” program, currently in its second year at Frederick Douglass Elementary in Walnut Hills, and part of a larger mentoring partnership between Frederick Douglass and Walnut Hills High School called See It, Believe It, Achieve It.

Over the last year our family medicine residents, Dr. Sara Maples, Dr. Melissa Saab and Dr. Laura Ledvora, with support of Dr. Anna Goroncy, expanded the Road to Medicine program to expose 6th – 8th graders to STEM education and health professions. Over the course of seven sessions, students explored the diversity of science, including the biology of making ice cream (which was delicious), the chemistry of extracting DNA from strawberries (less delicious), and the physics of testing bike helmets. Along the way, students worked with medical students, residents and physicians, discussing pathways to careers in science and medicine.

“Road to Medicine” represents one part of a developing community-based partnership with Walnut Hills (the community adjacent to The Christ Hospital and the home to many of our patients). Our other current projects include:

Working with the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation to increase access to healthy food through community gardens and developing neighborhood healthy cooking classes.
Developing Healthy Living classes at DOHN High School as part of the Outpatient Pediatrics rotation. Residents lead a monthly class covering topics from chronic diseases to recreational drug use, stress, sleep and exercise.
Joining the Center for Closing the Health Gap to complete community needs assessments to better understand the needs of the Walnut Hills community.

Students engage in a medical “who done it”

As the partnership strengthens over the next years, we look forward to expanding opportunities to the residency faculty and Family Medicine Center staff. Special thanks to the Walnut Hills Community Partnership Steering Committee members: Dr. Sara Maples, Dr. Emily Levinson, Dr. Laura Ledvora, Dr. Melissa Saab, Dr. Alex Vance, Dr. Sammie Lammie, Dr. Rory Rivendale, Dr. Suzanne Watson and Dr. Brian Bouchard.