Science Girl: Natural born health care reformer

Catherine D. Pollock
Jefferson Scholar
Class of 2000

May 2008 | Whether taking her dog for a walk along the beach or just picking up groceries at the local market, the tall blonde is often recognized as one of the “docs ” from the Regional Academic Health Center.

Smiling, she politely attempts to explain that she’s a third-year medical student, but her words fall on deaf ears, because just about everyone in the Lower Rio Grande Valley is thrilled to have her and other medical professionals serving their communities.

“Running into your patients on the beach or at the grocery store brings to mind the image of the doctor with the black bag, which has always been in the back of my mind,” says the enthusiastic Health Science Center medical student Catherine Davenport Pollock. “This community really needs us, and, with the rural setting, you feel that need. It’s truly wonderful.”

In its sixth year, the Regional Academic Health Center (RAHC), an extension campus of The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Medicine, offers third- and fourth-year students the opportunity to perform one or more of their clinical rotations in the Valley, serving Cameron, Hildago, Starr and Willacy counties. As the School of Medicine’s Medical Education Division in Harlingen, the RAHC provides students and residents the chance to receive clinical training in a medically underserved region of the country. Pollock has chosen to complete all six of her rotations there.

“I chose the RAHC because it was an outstanding opportunity to get real hands-on clinical experience,” she says. “You get to work directly with your attendings here, and you get to know the patients. In San Antonio, you may be fifth in line. But, we are a part of a much smaller team.”

PUBLIC AWARENESS - OUTREACH
It’s only natural that Pollock would be drawn to the RAHC, which personifies the Health Science Center’s fourth mission – to serve the community and serve the world through outreach. She’s been reaching out to family, friends, strangers and patients her entire adult life.

From spearheading medical student volunteers during Hurricane Katrina to leaving medical school to deal with illness in her family, Pollock, who turned 30 in October, is no stranger to analyzing situations, reshaping outdated systems and jumping in to make them better for all involved.

Her first exposure to medicine was serving as an Emergency Medical Technician during college in Charlottesville, Va. After becoming a squad’s crew sergeant, she quickly learned the importance of honing her emergency management skills and properly triaging patients. With a 40- minute drive to the nearest hospital, her ability to assess every situation efficiently was paramount for her patients’ recovery.

Those skills and experience were instrumental during Hurricane Katrina when 14,000 evacuees found themselves in San Antonio shelters. Having studied public health in England through a joint program with The London School of Economics and The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicines, Pollock was in a unique position to assess the needs of the disaster relief effort and offer ways to fill those needs.

In fact, Pollock was packing her bags for New Orleans when she received a telephone call from her father telling her to stay in the Alamo City because evacuees were headed her way. The next morning, she went directly to Associate Dean for Student Affairs Lee Jones, M.D., to ask what she could do and where she was needed. Her enthusiasm to contribute to the relief effort was infectious, and soon 700 medical students were volunteering in the effort that won them a 2006 United Way Volunteer Award.

Initially, Pollock coordinated the medical student volunteers by scheduling work shifts, devising activities for the children and briefing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officers on the status of the relief program.

In addition, she designed a form that medical student volunteers passed out to each Katrina evacuee within the shelter. The information from this form was then used to create a grid of all the evacuees, so that they could be easily located. This simple form and map were instrumental in medically treating evacuees and helping families find each other, Jones says.

“She was level headed,” he continues, “assessing the needs, designing and putting systems in place and finding people to help—all as a second-year med student.”

While the Katrina relief effort rekindled Pollock’s interest in public health and highlighted her natural abilities to analyze a situation, see the big picture, articulate a game plan and execute it with enthusiasm and poise, she knew it needed to be carried a step further. In order to ensure that others would learn from the experience, she began a research study on the disaster relief system, questioning medical student volunteers to see what their role should be in the future during such disasters. Currently, she is hoping to obtain funding for this study, which could be published as a free handbook for health departments in communities all over the nation.

Among the 12 students who worked on the study with her was recent UTSA graduate Wanda Casillas. “What draws me to her,” Casillas says, “is that she’s a medical student who is truly concerned about the health care system. She’s not the typical medical student in that she sees how her role fits into the rest of society – and she takes that very seriously.”

ROAD LESS TRAVELED
With all her success, Pollock’s road to medical school has not been a straight or well paved one. While she was labeled “science girl” at 14 after becoming a finalist in an international science competition, she really didn’t think that science or medicine was for her. Instead, she auditioned for every musical and play her school offered, campaigned every year for student government and was never once cast or elected.

She did, however, receive two summer fellowships including a Howard Hughes Fellowship, interning at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, and was nominated by her school for a Jefferson Scholarship, that she received to attend the
University of Virginia.

“Because of these wonderful opportunities, my opinion countedat a young age,” Pollock says, “and it gave me a lot of confidence.”

She’s still not afraid to give her opinion, question ideas and look for solutions. Yet, she never truly believed that medical school was the right road for her, although everyone who knew her just assumed she’d be a doctor one day.

While in college, Pollock changed majors every year until she registered for a class titled, “Bodies and Parts,” with professor Jim Childress, a biomedical ethicist, who became the catalyst for her to attend medical school.

However, Pollock didn’t have the grades or all the science classes she needed for medical school. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics with a concentration in health care and public sector economics from the University of Virginia and then began taking night classes to meet the requirements for medical school.

SITES ALONG THE WAY
While taking night classes, Pollock created a nonprofit organization for organ donation. She knew that college students were the prime age for donors and so established the College Campaign for Organ Donation, serving as its executive director, promoting organ donation education and mounting a successful promotional campaign on 22 college campuses.

Still in pursuit of medical school, Pollock moved to Austin in order to take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) near the institution she planned to attend, The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Medicine. Meanwhile, she took a job with the Texas Department of Health and studied public health in London. This coursework opened her eyes to the importance of educating medical professionals in more than science.

“I’m a big believer that every doctor has to have some course work in public health and economics,” Pollock says. “You need to understand public health policy.”

Finally on track and in her first four months of medical school in San Antonio, two members of Pollock’s family began to face serious medical issues. Unable to concentrate on her studies, which she found daunting, Pollock decided to leave school to be with her family.

When she made it back to Texas, she taught MCAT classes in Edinburg and Brownsville, the very area where she is serving as a medical student today. These classes were packed with students who were anxious to make something better of themselves and who respected her because of her status as a medical student.

“Those students inspired me to come back to medical school,” she says. “I realized it was a privilege to get into medical school in the first place, that being a medical doctor places you in a position of power and privilege – and that you have to use that for good.”

Back in school and following her Katrina success, Pollock had one more side trip to make, but it was worth it. She served as legislative affairs director of the American Medical Student Association this past year, where she was instrumental in planning the 2007 AMSA Paul Ambrose Leadership Institute, featuring Sen. Barack Obama, Acting Surgeon General Admiral Kenneth P. Moritsugu, Secretary of Veterans Affairs R. James Nicholson and many more leaders in health policy.

While extremely successful in this role as lobbyist and educator, she quickly discovered something important. “I’m not suited for nonmedical work. I enjoy the patients. While the first two years of medical school are tough because of the demanding course load, now that I’m seeing patients, it’s all coming together for me,” she says.

FINAL DESTINATION - REFORM
While Pollock’s goals may change in the next few years, currently she is interested in geriatric medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, hospital administration and the business of the doctor/patient relationship. She also feels she will continue to question the way medicine is practiced and look for ways to improve it. “I think she will always be a leader,” Jones says. “She’ll always look at the local impact, one-on one, and step back and see the global issues as well.”

No matter what path she may choose, her patients and the health care system will be the better for her choice to remain in the medical profession.

With reporting by Salwa Choucair, FUTURE, University of Texas at San Antonio, School of Medicine