The 30 minute documentary Remaking Alabama Medicine, originally broadcast on Alabama Public Television on October 19, 2006, is now available for viewing on our website. A companion program to the national Remaking American Medicine series, which was broadcast on PBS, Remaking Alabama Medicine profiles three Champions of Change who are making a difference in reducing health care disparity in Alabama.

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Dr. Leon Davis of Montgomery founded the Community Care Network (CCN), a grassroots/community-based, non-profit organization in the summer of 2000.

The mission of CCN is to bring "Faith and Medicine Together" to eliminate health disparities that exist in the minority, underprivileged, and underserved populations throughout Alabama. Physicians, nurses, dentists, nutritionists, therapists, technicians, and medical assistants work with faith and community based organizations to provide direct patient care, health screenings, and health education to those with limited access to quality health care.

In August 2003, CCN purchased a mobile medical vehicle, which greatly enhanced its medical outreach capacity. This mobile unit, appropriately named the Care-A-Van, is the first in a planned fleet of such vehicles that will bring quality health care to the underserved in both rural and low access urban areas of Alabama. The Care-A-Van is deployed one or two days per week and plans are underway to increase the number of regularly scheduled clinics.

With two well-equipped, state-of the art examination rooms, the mobile medical vehicle enables the CCN medical team to conduct screenings for blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, HIV/AIDS, osteoporosis, depression, sleep disorders, as well as vision and dental problems. The Care-A-Van helps to overcome the lack of transportation that many underserved people face and it makes it possible to provide services that require private examination rooms and adequate laboratory facilities.

CCN's goal is to become the leading force in eliminating health disparities that exist in Alabama by working with local churches, community centers, and others, to conduct health fairs that promote healthy lifestyles through education, early detection / screening, provision of medical resources and referrals for free or low cost healthcare.

Dr. Wonsuck Kim of Florence is president of the Alabama Academy of Ophthalmologists. He founded EyeCare Alabama in 2003 as an outreach program of the Academy to help fill a void in eyecare in the state. Diabetic eye disease is the number one cause of blindness in the U.S. In Alabama, which has some of the highest rates of diabetes in the nation, patients with diabetes rank in the lowest quartile in having a dilated eye exam within the past three years.

EyeCare Alabama goes to underserved counties in the state, and to counties with a low rate of diabetics who have not had a dilated eye exam within the past three years, to perform dilated eye exams, check intraocular pressures and visual acuities, and to treat with laser photocoagulation for diabetic retinopathy when indicated.

Dr. Kim's goal is to create a self-sustaining structure so that continuity of care will be maintained by volunteer phthalmologists at each county's health department.

Dr. Regina Benjamin provides medical care to the residents of Bayou La Batre, a fishing village on Alabama's gulf coast. A graduate of Xavier University, Morehouse School of Medicine, and the University of Alabama School of Medicine, Dr. Regina Benjamin chose to return to the region where she grew up, starting a family practice in Bayou La Batre. After
several years moonlighting in emergency rooms and nursing homes to keep her practice open, and with an MBA from Tulane under her belt, Dr. Benjamin converted her medical office into the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in 1990, dedicated to serving the large indigent population in her community.

Working in the fishing and shrimping industry, the residents of Bayou La Batre face constant struggles to eke out a living from the sea. Dr. Benjamin also has struggled to keep her clinic open through hurricanes and other disasters.

Her extraordinary dedication and self-sacrifice have already won Dr. Benjamin national recognition. In 1995, she became the first African-American woman, and the first person under 40, to be elected to the American Medical Association (AMA) Board of Trustees. Dr. Benjamin also serves on the Board of Physicians for Human Rights. She is a 1998 Mandela Award Winner, and a former Kellogg National Fellow.

Remaking Alabama Medicine is a joint production of AQAF and the Center for Public Television at the University of Alabama.

To learn about the Remaking American Medicine series visit the website:

http://www.ramcampaign.org/