38 years and still going: ETSU, Health Wagon spring clinic partnership continues

WISE – A late-winter snow Thursday did not slow a 38-year clinic partnership between The Health Wagon and East Tennessee State University's Quillen College of Medicine.The Move Mountains Medical Spring Clinic brought more than 100 patients to The Health Wagon's Wise campus from across Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee for a range of medical care."We've had this cooperative arrangement since the spring of 1988, and it's been a great opportunity to provide service to folks I the community," said Dr. John Culp, a family medicine physician with ETSU Health's family medicine practice in Bristol. "It's also a chance for our students and residents to get hands-on experience with helping folks out in the community."The Quillen College contingent on Thursday included nine students, three residents and two doctors working with Health Wagon staff across both clinics.For most of four decades, the spring clinic and health fair evolved from patients coming to the Health Wagon's mobile clinic van and tents to other sites provided by area organizations. With the opening of The Health Wagon's fixed clinic sites in Wise and Clintwood in the past seven years, said Wagon CEO Dr. Teresa Owens Tyson, the clinic now offers a year-round facility for dental and medical care along with some prescription services."It's the longest running health care series of its type in Virginia," Tyson said of the spring fair, "and we're very proud of that. (Health Wagon founder) Sister Bernie Kenny all those years ago reached out to ETSU for assistance because she was just really overwhelmed with giving medical care because we have such health care disparities."Tyson said the spring fair was like a family reunion with regular ETSU volunteers like Culp and Dr. Mark Handy, as well as longtime Health Wagon workers and volunteers like Sheila Collins, nursing director Paula Hill-Collins and pulmonologist Dr. Joe Frank Smiddy."Dr. Culp and Dr. Handy are still with us after 38 years, helping deliver some remarkable care," said Tyson. "Like always at these events, we find significant pathologies, cancers and undiagnosed conditions like hypertension and diabetes. We're able to get those individuals into care and turn their lives around. We're saving lives at these clinics."Services at Thursday's clinic ranged from vision screening and ophthalmological exams to dental work, basic lab testing, diabetes screening, mammograms, physical exams and some specialty treatments.Bill Kelly from Cocke County had been receiving platelet-rich plasma infusion treatment for his knee joints in recent months. The treatment helps heals his joints without resorting to knee replacement or steroid injections."We've done both knees before and Bill's seen some remarkable improvement," said Tyson as Health Wagon nurse practitioner Jazlyn Rowe drew some of Kelly's blood to process in a centrifuge for the plasma injection.Dr. Handy arrived to handle Kelly's injection as he used the procedure as a teaching moment for some of the Quillen students."It's amazing," Kelly said of the clinic. "You see from the people that are here that's well-needed and received."Besides medical care, the Spring Health Fair also helps with food boxes and personal care packages. A healthy cooking class saw volunteer Sharon Reese demonstrating how to make healthy and tasty recipes, such as nachos and salsa with Greek yogurt and using foods available in most stores."These health fairs have been so well received by the community and by the students that it has catapulted among the top schools in the nation for rural health," Tyson said. The event continues Friday, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. at the Sister Bernie Kenny Clinic in Clintwood and is free and open to the public, with no insurance required. Attendees are encouraged to arrive early and take advantage of the variety of services available. For more information, contact the Health Wagon at (276) 328-8850 or visit https://thehealthwagon.org.