Outside the clinic, smoke curled from a barbecue, drawing a small crowd of people lugging red bags stuffed with health information. Nearby, other volunteers fitted children for safe bicycle helmets and checked the safety of a new mother’s car seat.

The event may have seemed like just another health fair to some attendees. But to Kendall Campbell, M.D., medical director of the Eastside Community Practice, having a packed house on a Saturday was a huge step forward in an effort he launched at the clinic more than a year ago.

Kendall Campbell, M.D.

Located on Waldo Road just north of University Avenue, the Eastside Community Practice sits in an area with the highest rates of cancer deaths, infant mortality and sexually transmitted diseases in Alachua County, according to the 2008 Alachua County Health Report Card. That’s why Campbell set out on a mission to improve prevention efforts in the community, recruiting more patients and offering services geared toward taking care of patients year-round, not just when they’re sick.

“What we’re essentially trying to do is not be the ‘doc in the box,’” Campbell said. “We want to be more proactive and go out in the community.”

Because of the unique challenges in the community, the Eastside Community Practice doesn’t operate like a typical clinic. It’s an interdisciplinary effort — family doctors team with pharmacists, pediatricians, mental health counselors, nurse practitioners, nurses and a social worker to help patients. It has a diverse patient population, too. Some patients have insurance. Some don’t. For these folks, the help doesn’t end there. The clinic’s social worker works with patients who are unemployed to help them find jobs or even training so they can get a better job with insurance.

“It’s more of a one-stop shop for people here, to help get them on their feet and not continue in their state of helplessness and hopelessness,” Campbell said. “We’re saying ‘You can do this thing, and I’m going to help you.’”

To reach out to new patients, clinic staff members have performed health screenings at community locations such as Wal-Mart or local churches. Staff members help potential patients figure out if they qualify for programs such as CHOICES, a county program that gives the working uninsured access to needed health services. Campbell also has started a medication voucher programs using donated funds.

In November, the clinic is teaming with the department of urology to raise prostate cancer awareness. And they aren’t just sitting back and waiting for the patients to come to them, they’re taking the message into the community, to ministers and to barbershops. The clinic also received a grant from the U.S. Department of Women’s Health to help train community members how to fight childhood obesity.

Eventually, Campbell said he plans to use a mobile unit for screenings and other health services.

The clinic is also implementing a wellness program to prevent health problems and ensure that patients are following doctors’ orders even when they don’t have appointments. A big part of this effort is a disease management registry Campbell and his staff developed.

The registry will allow the clinic to easily keep track of patients who have conditions such as diabetes or asthma and will categorize them based on how they’re managing the disease, Campbell said. This will allow the practice to focus on specific patients who need to be followed more closely.

“The thing we have to do first is start the data-gathering process,” Campbell said. “How many diabetics are here? How many of our kids have up-to-date immunizations?”

Overall, Campbell’s biggest goal is to increase health-care opportunities for people in East Gainesville. He would like to keep the clinic open later so underinsured workers who can’t leave their jobs during the day can come to Eastside after hours when they’re sick instead of going to a hospital emergency room for primary care. He also hopes to collaborate with physicians in the department of emergency medicine to encourage homeless and uninsured East Gainesville residents to go to the clinic instead of using emergency services as primary care.

Of course, these goals require money, Campbell says. He’s working with UF development officers to raise money for the clinic and has hired a grant writer to work on securing grants for the clinic. The clinic also receives funding through the Alachua County Area Health Education Centers. Every dollar or collaboration helps.

“We have a lot of educating to do,” Campbell said. “We have a lot of work to do on health care in East Gainesville.”

“The Eastside clinic serves the underserved population of Gainesville. This population in particular sometimes needs extra motivation to keep up with their healthcare and a positive environment in which to do that,” Evans explained. “I have come to believe through my art experience that art can be a huge tool to help empower and unite people and communities, both of which are essential to improving the health of a community – mentally, physically, and spiritually.”

Lindsey Evans

Click here for more photos of this medical student art project.

Evans first came up with her idea while speaking with clinic medical director, Kendall Campbell, M.D., the assistant director of minority affairs for the COM and the adviser for the Student National Medical Association, which sponsored the project.

“Dr. Campbell said he wanted to spruce up his clinic,” Evans said. “I told him I’d love to do some paintings for his office. Dr. Campbell and Dr. (Donna) Parker have been incredible mentors to me since the start of medical school. I love working with them both.”

To prepare for the project, Evans designed and planned the drawings for each room on paper first. She then drew them on the walls of the clinic after hours. She was able to get the paint donated from various Gainesville stores, and she recruited medical students from every class to come out to the clinic Saturday, March 1. They came by the carloads, eager to paint and leave their own positive mark on the clinic.

The main mural in the front lobby depicts an image of diversity with the clinic’s mission statement written below: “To empower members of the community to maintain and improve their health.”

“This image and message are what the clinic staff and I wanted to pass on to the patients and the community through the project,” Evans said.

“The patients love it,” said Campbell. “It’s phenomenal. It’s also helped clinic morale. She’s a talented and gifted artist.”

“I have always been involved in art. I was drawing, painting, sculpting since I was little,” Evans said. “In high school I won a contest where one of my paintings was displayed in the House of Representatives for one year, and by that point I realized that no matter what path I took later in life, I would always be involved in art.

“I studied abroad in Brazil while I was an undergrad and worked with several nonprofit organizations that worked with homeless children and the arts,” she continued. “I learned to use art as a tool to harness kids into positive activity rather than a life on the streets.”

Evans took a year off before medical school and worked with children in Harlem, teaching elementary school. After hours, she worked for Creative Art Workshops for Kids organizing projects similar to those she did in Brazil.

“The themes focused on social issues and social empowerment of communities through art,” she explained. “All of these experiences together have made me realize that in my medical career I want to combine my art background with my passion for social change and serving the underserved.

“This project was hopefully a start to that path and I am thrilled with the way that it turned out.”