What are Project Access San Diego and Champions
for Health?
Founded in 2004 as the San Diego County Medical
Society Foundation, Champions for Health is a not-for-profit organization that addresses “the unanswered
healthcare needs of low-income and uninsured San
Diego County residents.”
3
Project Access San Diego Saturday Surgery Days is
a joint project of Champions for Health and Kaiser Permanente San Diego. Since 2008, the two groups have
partnered to provide free outpatient surgical services
to uninsured San Diego county residents. Twice a year,
for a half-day on a Saturday, hundreds of volunteers,
representing general surgery, orthopaedics, ophthalmology, and other specialties donate their services to
provide outpatient and clinic-based surgery and other
procedures. We typically use four operating rooms,
where the surgeon volunteers perform hernia repair,
knee arthroscopy, and cataract removals. At the same
time, physicians representing other specialties, including gastroenterology, urology, and vascular surgery,
are performing colonoscopies, adult circumcisions,
Editor’s note: The American College of Surgeons (ACS)
Operation Giving Back (OGB) program presents annual
Domestic and International Surgical Volunteerism
Awards, which are accorded in recognition of those
surgeons who are committed to giving back to society
by making significant contributions to surgical care
through organized volunteer activities that go above
and beyond the usual professional commitments.
To further acknowledge the efforts of these volunteers, the Bulletin is publishing occasional profiles
of recent recipients of these awards.
1 This month’s
profile is an interview with the recipient of the 2016
Domestic Surgical Volunteerism Award, Sandra
L. Freiwald, MD, FACS. Dr. Freiwald, a general surgeon in San Diego, CA, received the volunteerism
award for her work with Project Access San Diego,
an organization focused on improving community
health and support for physicians through engaged
volunteerism.
2
