Last Updated on June 1, 2003 by Paulette Brown-Hinds
San Bernardino
By Megan Carter
In a recent report just released by the American Medical Society, Blacks are left out of the health care loop and local Black physicians have been working to change that scenario. In the Inland Empire the James Wesley Vines, Jr. Medical Society, Inc. was there when 911 threatened every medical facility.
They held a continuing education workshop on Bio-Terrorism inviting the community to hear what physicians were hearing on the most present danger.
They also helped a number of students take the MCAT or enroll in classes that would help them pass it.
This was under the leadership of Lisa Gilkes, M.D. who has since left the area to practice in Atlanta, GA. The Inland Empire will miss her but another action-oriented physician Ancel J. Rogers, M.D, has succeeded her.
The Vines have also taken the first steps to name a humanitarian award after Dr. Howard Inghram, the first Black physician to practice in San Bernardino. The first recipients of the award were Hardy and Cheryl Brown in recognition of the national honor they received from the Gallery of Greats. Also honored was Jay Rosner, J.D. Executive Director of the Princeton Review Foundation.
Rosner has helped place 60 students into medical school per year. He has been a presenter at the Vines Educational Symposium for the past two years.
A gala event, held at the Ontario, CA Double Tree Hotel last spring, was a time for the ever-pressured “docs” to relax with music and fun gaming for wonderful prizes.
The Vines are the strongest opponents of the UCR Bio-Med program due to its extremely high rate of failure with African Americans and other students of color. Many students have left the UCR program only to become extremely successful in Ivy League schools.
The Vines is a highly active group. They have partnered with other health/legal and community based organizations to focus on health in the Black community.
Last fall their educational workshop, “Access Denied” dealt with the problem our children face in higher education. “We probed deeper into the problems affecting our children and the barriers to higher education placed before them,” said Gilkes.
Always available to share their knowledge, Dr. Ernest Levister presented a talk in a UCR series on hypertension and diabetes, two diseases that affect Blacks disproportionately. While podiatrist Dr. Leondras Jackson led the groups participation in the “Walk for Heath”
Gilbert Bush M.D. is the webmaster for the site located at www.aahn.com.
