Clinic update

Had clinic tonight, we set up a triage to screen for diabetes among our patient population. One of the first years, a good friend of mine tested a patient with a random non-fasting blood glucose of 135 last week. The threshold to see the diabetes nurse was 140. His gut told him to take the patient to the nurse anyway, nurse orders him to come back fasting the following week. Today, the patient came back (fasting blood glucose is diagnostic for diabetes), and the blood glucose is 300. A first year did this, he pretty much saved the patient from untold problems down the road had it not been caught.

Although it is not a place to teach students, we have setup a program that has so far been fruitful and I'm so proud of my classmates who undertook this project. We're making a difference in the lives of people!

Other updates, the clinic has gotten volunteer ophthalmologists providing services. Unfortunately, we've lost support from Drexel's affiliated hospital to do free lab work. Right now we are not doing blood testing for our patients. I'm looking into point of care devices to do blood testing and some grants to pay for it. I have the whole summer to figure it out since I'll be sticking around here to work at the clinic. It's part of a paid summer program offered by Drexel.