Christopher Dodd tends to a typical patient, Luis Orozco, 52, who had half of his left leg amputated after a cut toe turned into a gangrene infection.

Orozco, a welder, doesn't have health insurance and didn't monitor his diabetes, which, left unchecked, can lead to serious foot problems.

''This was something we could have taken care of,'' Dodd said. ``Maybe then this wouldn't have happened.''

Dodd, 32, is one of a handful of doctors-in-training who are marrying their love of medicine with their social conscience at the Jay Weiss Center for Social Medicine and Health Equity at the University of Miami. Launched in 2005, the center is one of four social residency programs in the country -- and the only one that provides training from the first day of medical school to the last.

''I want to be engrossed day in and day out in the care of the poor,'' Dodd says.

The current roster includes five residents and 26 medical students. Their work has taken them to the mountains of Peru, where they ran a mobile clinic, to Overtown, where they're researching women with HIV. They've traveled to India, where they treated patients who had never seen a physician, and to Tallahassee, where they lobbied for the Prevention First Act -- a law that advocates better access to birth control.

The physicians-in-training are people like Reginald Saint-Hilaire, 24, a Haitian-American who grew up in Fort Lauderdale and wants to improve health care in his homeland. And Brittany Ashlock, 31, who studied anthropology as a UM undergrad and worked in an HIV clinic in San Francisco before returning to UM, where she is working on a medical degree and doctorate in microbiology.

''These kids are wonderful,'' said Dr. Bart Chernow, director of the center. ``They all want to volunteer and help other people. They want to go where the earthquake is.''

HONORING WEISS

The program honors the memory of a rich man, Southern Wine & Spirits founder Jay Weiss, who believed that poor people have the right to quality health care. He was an admirer of Dr. Paul Farmer, the Harvard professor and founder of Partners in Health, the global health organization instrumental in cutting the AIDS rates in Haiti through its patient outreach programs.

Weiss funded the Ryder Trauma Center and the Sylvester Cancer Center at UM/Jackson. After his death, two of his daughters started the social medicine center as a tribute to their father's ideals. Farmer sits on its board.

''He was interested in getting doctors to do this as a career as opposed to a hobby,'' said Weiss' daughter, Laurie Weiss Nuell, a social worker who sat for nine years on the Public Health Trust, the board that oversees Jackson Health System. ``Typically doctors will go on their vacation and do some work. It's a great thing, but it's not sustainable.''

The concept of social medicine is catching on. In 2006, a quarterly Spanish-English online journal, Social Medicine, was launched by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, which has run a social medicine residency program for more than 30 years.

''We think of things like the impact of mass incarceration -- this has enormous ramifications for the community as a whole,'' said Matt Anderson, journal editor.

In everyday life, social medicine can translate into more astute problem solving. The residents and students work with nonprofits and attend lectures from people like Steven Leifman, a state Supreme Court advisor on criminal justice and mental health; Cheryl Little, director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, and Ethel Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@