Champions in Health Care: Alphonso Brown, community outreach
It was a few years ago that Dr. Alphonso Brown had a patient with gastroenterology and lung problems for which she’d been hospitalized. The woman had trouble getting to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center .Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Latest from The Business Journals Slide show: The BBJ’s 2011 Champions in Health CareChampions in Health Care: Joanne Pokaski, administrator2011 Champions in Health Care Follow this company .to get treatment, and when she finally showed up for an appointment, only to be told she’d have to come back to finish, she began crying.
Brown agreed to meet her at the Bowdoin Street Health Center in Dorchester, which was within walking distance of her home. It was Brown’s first visit to the center.
“I fell in love with the place,”longchamp outlet he said. He started holding office hours there once a week, eventually increasing the frequency to twice weekly.
Brown, a physician with the department of medicine and division of gastroenterology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, now also uses the Dorchester health clinic to mentor high school students for careers in medicine. This fall, he will launch the ICAN Scholars Program for students in grades 10-12 to learn basic examination skills and ethics, as well as how to interview a patient and come up with a treatment plan.
“It’s very similar to a medical school curriculum, tailored to a high school level,” he said. “By teaching and helping them to understand basic physiology, I will teach them the five or six most common diagnoses.”
Brown, who grew up in Brooklyn and now lives in Newton, says he has an affinity for disadvantaged kids in the city since that’s where he came from.
“I’m not looking for the best kids or the brightest,” he said. “I’m looking for the middle-of-the-road kids … and to show them it’s possible.”
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