S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) has an exciting new project starting soon and are looking for Volunteers to help. The volunteer position calls for availability of 4 to 6 hours per week.  The hours are flexible, but need to be Monday-Friday anytime between 9:00am-5:00pm.  Good customer service skills helpful!

Project: Conduct survey of Apartment Complexes in the Pee Dee to record tobacco use policies.  Volunteers will be given a list of Apartment Complexes and asked to call Property Managers to see if they have a Smoke-Free policy.  You will be making the phone calls from home and entering information into Survey Monkey, or recording answers on a hard copy survey form.  

Time Commitment: Minimum of 4 to 6 hours per week, Monday through Friday.  The project will run from July through September 2021.  

Training: DHEC will be conducting training remotely using MS Teams prior to the start of the project.  Training is expected to take 1 to 2 hours.

If you would like to volunteer for this project, please send an email to me at latourrj@dhec.sc.gov or respond to this email to let me know.  We will notify you when training is scheduled!  

We appreciate your assistance in this important survey that will be used to help keep your neighbors, community, and the people of South Carolina healthy.

Help 4 Kids Florence is a nonprofit organization that feeds elementary school age children in need in Florence County.  They provide meals for children on the weekends during the school-year.

Florence county medical alliance members volunteer at the Florence Help 4 Kids once a month and this year along with the medical society (photo) donated $5,000 to them.

Fore more information about the Help 4 Kids, please click this link.

Photo: Dr. Palmer Kirkpatrick from the Medical Society, Sue Jona and Ron Jaggers from the Medical Alliance giving the $5,000 check to Help 4 Kids.

The Florence County Medical Society Alliance held the 2021 SCMAA President's brunch in honor of the South Carolina Medical Association Alliance president Bobby Chowdary on May 18th at Ron Jagger's home. A beautiful flower bouquet was sent by Sandra Morris who attended the event through a video call. The very lively and energetic President Chowdary informed the attendees of her journey to the SCMAA president's position and her future goals that are set for the next year. Thank you, Bobby, for accepting the role of the President of the SCMAA. You will truly be remembered for your accomplishments and your charisma.

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Please click this link to view the pictures from the event.

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Florence County Medical Society is a proud sponsor of the 2020-2021 SCMA Poster Competition.

Congratulations to the winners of the Student and Resident Poster Presentations! You can still view the poster presentations and see the spectacular work of our South Carolina residents and medical students.

• First place - Therapeutic Anticoagulation in Critically Ill COVID-19 Positive Patients with Elevated D-Dimer: A Retrospective Study - William Webster, DO, USC-Prisma Health Midlands Internal Medicine Residency
• Second place - Gender Differences in Outcomes of Interdisciplinary Pain Rehabilitation - Julia Rhodes, Medical Student, Medical University of South Carolina
• Third place - Evaluating the Utility of the Ventriculo Gallbladder Shunt in Pediatric Hydrocephalus: Long Term Outcomes and Complications - Tristan Mackey, Medical Student, University of South Carolina Greenville.
  

Please click on this link to view the newsletter.

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Alyssa Lee has won Florence County Medical Society's inaugural $2000 cash award to be presented at the FMU Carter Center next week.  Alyssa has one more year of study at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Florence Regional Campus and has grown fond of Florence through her training this past year.  In her essay chosen by the Society's executive committee, Alyssa wrote,"I have loved my clinical experiences both in the clinic and in the hospitals in the Florence region. Particularly, I have found that the culture and team dynamics in Florence are something that I enjoy witnessing and being a part of." Daniel Hyler, MD, the Society's newly elected president, stated, "I anticipate that students like Alyssa will want to return to Florence for a career in medicine because of the depth of talent, innovation, and empathy that characterizes our medical community.  

Our local medical society is led by dedicated physicians from several specialties and is endorsed and partially sponsored by three of our major health institutions: HopeHealth, McLeod Health, and MUSC - Florence Medical Center."   Joseph Hoyle, MD, Society secretary and trustee to the South Carolina Medical Association explains, “We want to emphasize the value students bring to each of us as practicing physicians, to our patients, and to our local medical community.”  Dr. Hoyle, along with Alan Sechtin, MD, dean of the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Florence Regional Campus, will present the award to Alyssa at 8:30am on Wednesday, June 9th. Students at the Florence Campus can choose any specialty for advanced residency training.  At this time, only family medicine has this training in Florence but all types of specialists make Florence their home, benefitting Florence and the Pee Dee.  

The timing of the award comes as students are finalizing their specialty choice and will need to travel for interviews.  However, the goal is engage students and give them a better understanding of the Society and its benefits. According to Dr. Hyler’s wife Debbie, “Often the spousal support and culture of the city are deciding factors for a physician's choice of long-term practice.  Certainly these factors are important for retaining physicians once they do come here.  The Alliance works with the Society to provide opportunities to meet and get to know each other, as well as promote the health of our community through many service opportunities.” Alyssa, along with her husband Robert, will also be honored at the New Physician Welcome on September 16th, which is open to all physicians regardless of membership status.  The Society welcomes members who live or work in or near Florence County, and has four official functions each year.  Medical students can join for free.

Also, you may contact Dr. Joseph Hoyle, at jhoylemd@yahoo.com

Because kids don't come with instructions

The School Foundation has teamed up with Bright by Text to send free activities, games, and resources right to your cell phone. Messages are targeted to your child's age and include information on child development, language and early literacy, health and safety, behavioral tips, and more.

This program, already offered in other communities around the nation, offers parents and caregivers expert tips and resources for children up to the age of eight.  Interactions a child has with adult caregivers at this stage of their life sets the foundation for future learning, behavior, and health.  Bright by Text shares fun and easy activity ideas, positive parenting tips and resources, and information about the child's physical development.

For more information click on this link or visit The School Foundation website.

Dr. John C. Ropp III, MD, has been elected the 2021-22 president of the South Carolina Medical Association. Ropp is a family medicine physician in Hartsville.

Bobbie Chowdhary is the newly installed president of the South Carolina Medical Association Alliance for 2021-22. She previously served as president of the Florence County Medical Society Alliance from 2017 to 2019.  She currently serves on boards for the McLeod Health Foundation, The School Foundation and the Florence Regional Art Alliance.

Please click on this link to read the full article.

There’s something gratifying about volunteering. Whenever we volunteer we often get more out of it than we give. Many studies have shown that volunteering helps people who donate their time feel more socially connected, thus warding off loneliness and depression. Volunteering has positive implications that go beyond mental health. Evidence of volunteerism’s physical effects can be found in a study by Dr. Sneed and Dr. Cohen from Carnegie Mellon University. Adults over age 50 who volunteered on a regular basis were less likely to develop high blood pressure than non-volunteers.

‍Benefits of volunteering

• Gain confidence - Volunteering can help you gain confidence by giving you the chance to try something new and build a real sense of achievement.
• Make a difference - Volunteering can have a real and valuable positive affect on people, communities and society in general.
• Meet people - Volunteering can help you meet different kinds of people and make new friends.
• Be part of a community - Volunteering can help you feel part of something outside your friends and family

Volunteering Opportunities

MUSC

McLeod

McLeod Hospice

Access Health Pee Dee

Mercy Medicine

“Will Your Anchor Hold?” and “Anchors, Aweigh” are famous lines that can apply to the new Anchor Lane, a townhouse project in Florence.

The first is the title of a hymn by Priscilla Jane Owens and William J. Kirkpatrick written in 1882, The words were inspired by the Epistle to the Hebrews, Chapter 6, Verse 19: "Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. ...” (Wikipedia). The second song, by Charles Zimmermann, was written in 1906 for the U.S. Naval Academy, now the official U.S. Navy song.

Groundbreaking for Anchor Lane in Florence was held on Aug. 1, 2018. Sixteen units are now home for individuals with mental illness, stable and under medical care, who are independent but in need of personal case management.

The first tenants began moving into the attractive town house project in the first week of December 2019. And so culminated a five-year effort spearheaded by Shirley Imbeau and S.C. Sen. Hugh K. Leatherman Sr. from Florence with the able assistance of Joy Jay of Mental Health America of South Carolina, Columbia, and others.

To read the full article, please click here.