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2008 Tet Health Fair in Balboa Park

The 2008 Tet Health Fair in Balboa Park was a big success thanks to several factors: highly visible Fair location near the entrance with vast parking areas across the streets, relatively well-centered traffic within the boundaries, booth setting in proximity of the grand stand, and superb weather during the whole week-end.

As early as 9:00 AM, UCSD students Anh-Thu Ha (Pharmacy) and Richard Tran (Medicine) were on the premises, arranging the worktable with medical screening products, brochures and forms for the patients.

At 10:00 AM, Tuan Mai and Sang Le came with Drs Ton and Binh Tran, and were joined by the pharmacy first shift. The booth was at a corner, thus enjoyed full view from passers-by.

Services offered were: diabetes screening through finger sticks, blood pressure screening, heartburn assessments, breast cancer, colon cancer prevention, and general drug information. Dr Ton Tran discussed the questions of attendees regarding risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, hyperglycemia, smoking and obesity. Regarding diabetes mellitus, patients asked the significance of the numbers obtained from the glucometer, and the effect of fasting vs non-fasting during the tests.



Cases of high systolic pressure and normal diastolic pressure in the elderly prompted the question of to treat or not to treat while Binh asked whether the patient on isoniazid is taking vitamin B6, and checked on the conversion between the metric and English systems for heights and weights. She also kept the roster of students who came before or after 2:00 PM for appropriate logging.

Around noon , Dr Charles Daniels, Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Mrs. Daniels stopped by to observe the student activities. An attentive patient went through all the tests available, who was a former nurse working at the UCSD Medical Center . Volunteer workers from nearby booths came to have their blood glucose tested. A reporter from the radio station Tieng Nuoc Toi interviewed Dr Ton, and live-recorded the free health services of the UCSD students as well as the public health activities of the Asian Pacific Health Center. Binh Tran reminded all to attend the follow-up session on Medicare Part D on February 17, 2008 from 11 AM to 2:00 PM at the Vietnamese Federation offices in San Diego.

About 60 patients came, most of whom expressed appreciation for the services rendered by practitioners and students during the Tet holidays. Both shifts of first-, second- and third-year pharmacy students found the interaction and hands-on work with the patients worthwhile, following the academic learning in class. The health screenings were ended at 4:00 PM.

Present on Saturday February 9, 2008 were:

UCSD Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences:

Faculty:
Charles Daniels, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs
Binh N. Tran, PharmD, Assistant Clinical Professor

Student Pharmacists:
Anh-Thu Ha
Sarah Bajorek
Naz Askari
Megan Chenoweth
Heather Gao
Cristina Garcia
An Cong (Spondee) Shen
Rai, Sohil
Courtney Shakowski
Duy Tran
Karen Yi

Western University of Health Sciences:
Katie Mae

UCSD School of Medicine:

Faculty:
Ton D. Tran , MD , Clinical Instructor

Medical Students:
Tuan Mai
Sang Le
Richard Tran

Reported by
Binh N. Tran, PharmD
February 10, 2008