American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine (AUC) ― in collaboration with the Positive Foundation and the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labor ― is pleased to share the success of a breast screening event held on Easter Saturday, March 30 in Philipsburg.
The first of two events scheduled this semester, AUC's project provides free health screenings along with educational information about breast cancer symptoms and risk factors. The next screening will take place on April 6. To understand the prevalence of breast abnormalities within the population of Sint Maarten, results will be reported to the Ministry of Public Health to help establish policies for the screening of breast abnormalities and cancer.
Dr. Naira Chobanyan, oncologist and professor of clinical medicine at AUC, and her team of clinical medicine fellows and medical students provided free health screenings to more than 30 local women, which included taking history, checking vital signs, assessing body/mass index, and measuring waist circumference, visual acuity, blood glucose and cholesterol levels. Each case presented to the faculty, followed by a clinical breast examination conducted by Dr. Chobanyan. To date, Dr. Chobanyan has screened more than 630 local women.
In addition to the benefits that this research brings to the community of Sint Maarten with breast awareness and education, clinical fellows and medical students are afforded an opportunity to apply their skills and knowledge in real-life clinical settings. In each screening event, students observe breast and general pathologies and learn how physicians execute critical thinking and reasoning based on the history and physical examination. By working with real patients, conducting interviews and performing overall health assessments, medical students are gaining real-world clinical experience so they can be better prepared for their clinical rotations.
