1. Dominican Republic
Zachary Alholm

2. Constanza, Dominican Republic

3. Constanza, Dominican Republic
Population: 59,052
Distance from Santo Domingo: 140 km
Major business: agriculture (oceanic climate) and tourism

4. International Health Initiative
Founded in 2015
Board members include individuals from:
University of Kansas Medical Center
Brown University
Harvard University
Tufts University
”Empower global communities to develop self-sustaining public health solutions”

5. Trip Objectives Community assessment HIV Assessment
Referral clinic in Barrio Los Flores
Create GPS map of Barrio Los Flores
Coordinate Dental Clinic

6. Community Assessment
Data collected in Barrio Los Flores, a small neighborhood in Constanza.
Our team visits this neighborhood 2x/year
Goal: obtain consistent data through observation/understanding of a small, particular community
105 household surveys collected
Houses were randomized before data collection
We only interviewed the “Donna”/eldest woman of the house.
Surveys collected by local Peace Corps volunteers
Data was collected with electronic tablets

7. Community Assessment Survey questions:
Basic Demographics including age, # of people in household, educational level
Past Medical History
Access to health care
Sexual history, use/understanding of contraception, past pregnancies
Zika virus
HIV and access to testing/medications
Key point: We DID NOT ask if patients had been diagnosed, but were much more concerned with their understanding of the disease and their access to testing

8. HIV Assessment HIV Survey Questions: Have you ever heard of HIV?
Have you ever had an HIV test?
Do you know others with HIV?
If we had an HIV test, would you be willing to be tested today?

9. HIV Assessment Main observations: Access to HIV testing is difficult
In most cases, patients will wait over 24 hours at a hospital for a blood HIV test
Rapid HIV testing is not well-understood and recognized as a standard of care
While 97% have heard of HIV, 32% of people have never been tested
83% of the community members were willing to get an HIV test (though we were not testing on this trip)

10. Referral Clinic
We did not treat patients or hand out medication, but instead screened patients and referred to local clinics or the hospital.
Goal: Empower the local physicians
Staffed by 2 US physicians and several Peace Corp staff
We saw 80 patients, with over 50% of them having abnormal test values
15 of them had never been diagnosed with hypertension
While the referral clinic was not the main objective of our trip, it functioned to reinforce to the community and local physicians that our main goal was to empower the local healthcare system

11. GPS Map
Collected GPS coordinates during our community assessment surveys (electronic tablets)
There is no current map of Barrio Los Flores

12. GPS Map The goal of this map:
Help the local Peace Corp volunteers with their community projects by giving them access to a map
Create a process for other communities to create their own map (through the Peace Corp volunteers)
Allow for easier and coordinated data collection on future trips

13. GPS Map During the surveys we took a picture of each individual house.
This allowed for future coordination between the individual house and it’s GPS location

14. GPS Map
More examples of the houses we assessed during the week.

15. Dental Clinic
Mobile dental clinic put on by La Vega Dental School (located 3-4 hours from Constanza)
2-day clinic in local elementary school
Over 200 kids were seen for dental cleanings and basic procedures
Funded by International Health Initiative