ATSU Class of 2011 from left (rear) Kevin Corman, Daniel Robinson, James Simmons, Jeremy Hutchins; (front) Thi Nguyen, Un Ju Kim, Carrie Eckstam, Jessica Brayton.

HealthPoint is one of 11 community campuses around the country hosting A.T. Still University medical students. In June, the first class graduated through the partnership formed by HealthPoint and ATSU. This innovative alliance places students onsite at community clinics around the country for three of their four years of medical school, rather than the two years common to most medical programs. We asked one of the recent grads, Jessica Brayton, what this exciting curriculum means to her.

Interview with a Medical Student

By Melissa Lerch, PhD

Jessica Brayton is one of the first medical students to train at HealthPoint as part of the joint program with the A.T. Still University- School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona (ATSU- SOMA). This is a unique program that connects medical students with Community Health Centers (CHC) across the nation.  Jessica spent the first year of the program in Arizona with her classmates and the next three years at HealthPoint while her fellow students dissipated across the country to learn what community medicine means in a hands-on environment. 

Jessica graduated last month with the inaugural class of ATSU students and is excited about the prospect of practicing family medicine in a CHC. She is joining Scripps

Mercy in Chula Vista, California for a family practice residency in a border medicine community center. Jessica shares a little of how she benefitted from this innovative partnership.

Lerch: What does the CHC model mean?

Brayton: The definition of community medicine changes depending on who you talk to and what it means to them. Different facilities implement it in different ways. HealthPoint achieves it in a way that really is the definition of community medicine. It can be geographical or cultural. However, rather than being simply geographical, I think of the HealthPoint community as being more of a cultural approach. You have to understand how your patient fits into a community to give them the best care.

Lerch: Can you give me an example?

Brayton: A couple of students and I started a program called Healthy Hearts in one of the clinics.  We found a select group of patients with uncontrolled hypertension.  We met on a biweekly basis for classes on healthy eating, meditation, acupuncture, and naturopathic medicine.  One of the most important aspects of the program was to identify barriers to care.

Brayton: Does the patient have access to getting to the clinic? Did the patient have access to buy medication? Or the money to buy their medication? Are they taking their medication? If not, why not? Is it cultural?

Through the meetings, we found that there was a group of patients that would only take their medication when they had headaches rather than everyday based on their cultural perspective.  In another case, a patient had missed three appointments because they didn't have a car or a place to live anymore. All of these things greatly influence how healthy a person is going to be. Whether it is them taking their medication or getting proper nutrition, there are so many different factors that can be involved in a person's life that affect their health care. I think community medicine is understanding these factors and helping them achieve the best health in light of those factors.

Melissa Lerch, PhD is a scientist specializing in science communication. She learned of HealthPoint through the Global to Local project and volunteered to interview Brayton.