5871 University Ave, Ste 334
San Diego, CA 92115
Ph: 619-582-2360; Fax: 619-582-2297;
E-mail: btran.aphc@sbcglobal.net
Hepatitis Screening Day, Apr. 1, 2007
The Hepatitis B Screening Day was a project planned several months ago by the UCSD Asian Pacific American Medical Students with the participation of the Asian Pacific Health Center (APHC) for the screening part, and the health professionals in the San Diego Chinese Association (SDCA) for health consultations.
The event organized on April 1st, 2007 at the Quantum Adult Day Health care Center in San Diego was generously funded by the American Liver Foundation who designated it the THINK (The Hepatitis Information You Need to Know) B campaign. Other sponsors were the APAMSA and the California Medical Association. More than 50 members from the above associations, students, volunteers, and media came.
We met Dr Hua Jin, SDCA Vice-president of Communications, and many doctors in the association, as well as Mr. Frank Liu, President and Ms. Jane Hou, VP for Fund raising. Besides family practice and internal medicine, other areas of consultations were in neurology, psychiatry, hematology/oncology, GI and pediatrics. Optometry, dentistry, chiropractic and Chinese medicine completed the scope of activities.
As the patients came in, they filled the registration form and the patient consent form to have their test results disclosed to the proper health offices if requested. Medical and pharmacy students helped at the registration desk for Hepatitis B screening and the health consultations. In the semi-enclosed area reserved for blood drawing, staff members transcribed the patient data onto lab forms and two phlebotomists screened a total of 54 patients without any problems. Two tests were ordered: Hepatitis B Surface Antigen and Hepatitis B surface antibody quantitative. Overall, patients were happy with all the procedures. Blood samples were centrifuged on the spot, and sent to the labs for processing.
Towards the end of the event, Dr. Hua Jin remitted framed certificates of appreciation to the doctors and faculty present at the outreach event. The excellent collaboration between the APHC staff, the SDCA health professionals and the UCSD Asian Pacific Medical Students will lead to more combined efforts in the future to help the Chinese, Vietnamese and other Asian communities in San Diego .
As test results came in a few days after the screening day, a meeting took place at the APHC on Friday, April 6, 2007 to go over the results. Michael Lam, Charlotte Gore and Gordon Ho came to sort the results and assemble the letters to send to the patients. Results of the screening were communicated to the American Liver Foundation in a separate report on April 20, 2007.
Binh Tran, PharmD
Executive Director
Asian Pacific Health Center
5871 University Ave #334
