AMPATH Mexico

Submitted by: Beth Felker

AMPATH/MAPAS México Priorities:

Evaluate, define, and care for NCDs that Mexico and Texas share

• AMPATH/MAPAS México clinical team continues to conduct household level visits along with the promotoras for early detection and follow-up for NCDs Including hosting AMPATH global partners in community and household visits on April 4th.
•  March 26-27 we held our spring multidisciplinary health outreach/jornada in one of our rural communities and reached 190 individuals with healthcare services including NCD screening (BP, BMI in everyone, capillary glucose and A1C when appropriate) and multidisciplinary consults (medicine, pediatrics, ob/gyn, ultrasound, psychology, nutrition, physical therapy, podiatry, point-of-care lab and pharmacy). The multidisciplinary team also visited schools to reach and additional 144 students with health education. Led by an interprofessional team from BUAP (medical school, nursing, psychology, and residents from the university hospital), this is the first health outreach in which our promotoras comunitarias also have directly participated with NCD screening (BP measurement with support/mentorship from BUAP social service doctors).
• The Clinical team has been conducting a medicine donation drive locally at BUAP to support the health outreaches and care activities. Recent BUAP media coverage (from 3:17-5:54): https://www.facebook.com/TVBUAP/videos/1098786552261221/
• This article about NCD focus was posted to AMPATH/MAPAS México website: https://www.ampathmexico.org/news-blog-feed/program-aims-to-address-non-communicable-diseases-in-underserved-communities-through-training-screening-and-access-to-care

Participate meaningfully in addressing the social determinants of health and translate health promotion and healthcare provision to the community

• The San Francisco Xochiteopan middle school won second-place in the state-level competition for sustainable school projects with their school  garden project supported by AMPATH/MAPAS México funds, and Nutrition Working Group and the nutrition team from BUAP completed their Spring lessons with demonstrations and a nutri-rally.
• Supported the April 3-4 Partner Summit in Puebla, Mexico with one day of presentations, brainstorming, and sharing and one day of community visits.

Build capacity in public health and healthcare delivery

• The AMPATH/MAPAS México clinical team has been providing training for all social service trainees (medico pasantes) assigned to BUAP on how to effectively engage with the community and provide screening and care in health outreaches.
• This semester we have 40 trainees enrolled in the global virtual elective on Migrant Health co-taught by BUAP and UT faculty.

Monthly seminars:

• February 27, 2025 93 People attended the seminar on lung cancer prevention, detection, and treatment in Mexico and Texas. Click here to register.
• March 27, 2025 6-7:30pm CT. Dr. José Luis Ródriguez Sánchez of BUAP and Dr. Erin Rodriguez of UT Austin will share their experience with psychology in Mexico and Texas. Click here to Register & share »
• Pediatrics: Late March-April 2 Dell pediatric residents are participating in 3 week Medical Spanish and Cultural Immersion elective in Puebla. The pediatric residency program has opened applications for their next cycle.
• Psychiatry: 2 Dell Med School psychiatry faculty visited Puebla in March to meet with BUAP counterparts and to plan to launch two new projects as part of the Mental Health Education Working Group.
• UT Nursing will host their first BUAP student for three weeks in June 2025.

Train and research to elevate the primary care system and public health

• Pilot Funding: Our team is supporting the planning stage of four projects that were awarded:
  • The Bienestar Working Group (WG) will focus on a community mental health initiative with psychology trainees to better understand the experiences and socio-emotional status of people living with diabetes and their families.
  • The Mental Health Education WG’s project will leverage psychiatry residents to determine the frequency of undiagnosed major depressive disorder in the population of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
  • The Mental Health Education WG also will implement their Project ECHO training again, now with even more pasantes (100) to provide evidence-based psychiatric care.
  • The Nutrition WG will study the effects of a multilevel, school-based gardening and hydroponics, cooking, and nutrition intervention on anthropometrics, FV access, and diabetes risk among middle school adolescents and their families in the rural community of San Francisco Xochiteopan (SFX) in Puebla, Mexico.
• Fourth annual Global to Local conference “Health Impacts of War,” hosted by the student Global Health Interest Group and co-sponsored by the Division of Global Health and Dell Med Student Affairs office.
  • 40+ hybrid attendees and 5 main speakers Tausi Suedi, Greg Muller, Ricardo Garay, Kaveh Khoshnood and Aman Odeh
• Valerie Cardenas shared this Instagram post re: AMPATH/MAPAS México at CUGH.