SF State Raza studies undergraduates and UCSF medical students volunteer to bring routine care and health education to uninsured

SAN FRANCISCO, January 23, 2007 - Clinica Martin Baro, a Saturday health clinic located in the San Francisco Mission district provides free basic health maintenance and education to uninsured and disadvantaged people. The volunteer operation is a collaboration between San Francisco State University undergraduate students in Raza studies the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and UCSF medical students. Named in memory of the late Jesuit priest and human rights activist, the clinic is located in the CARECEN building at 1245 Alabama St. near 24th Street and is open every Saturday starting at 8 a.m.

Operating solely on volunteer efforts and donations, the medical students provide treatment under the supervision of two doctors, while the Raza studies students plan and manage the clinic's operations, raise funds and assist with patient visits and health education.

The idea for the clinic grew out of a Latino Health Care Perspectives class, part of the Raza Studies Department at SF State's College of Ethnic Studies. Students in the class are trained to register patients, record medical histories, set up medical charts and take vital signs and glucose readings. In addition, the students package and send blood samples to labs, solicit in-kind donations of medical supplies and plan and manage fundraising activities. Some students are also trained to help insured people navigate the paperwork and language barriers that impede access to health care plans.

"About 70 percent of the families of the Raza students working on the clinic don't have health insurance," said Felix Kury, a psychotherapist, Raza Studies lecturer and the SF State faculty adviser for the clinic. "So this is a very passionate pursuit for these students."

Rene Salazar, MD and assistant clinical professor of medicine at UCSF, oversees the medical care. Two UCSF medical students, Carolina Monico and Zoel Quinonez, are co-directors of the clinic. Both emigrated from Latin American countries and grew up in the Mission District.

Monico, who double-majored in biology and Raza studies at SF State, hopes that the clinic will also serve to encourage its volunteers to consider careers in medicine. While the most recent U.S. census indicates that 42.7 million people of Hispanic origin live in the United States, only 3 percent are doctors.