Pee Dee AHEC Hosts Innovative Training: Bal-A-Vis-X

In January, more than 40 participants from seven states attended Pee Dee AHEC’s Bal-A-Vis-X two-day training. Bal-A-Vis-X is a series of exercises that improve balance, hearing, vision, and brain/body integration. It focuses on sensory integration, balance, cross body, and mid-line movements to help improve gross and fine motor skills. It can also improve attention and focus in patients and students.

Bill Hubert developed and founded Bal-A-Vis-X more than 20 years ago. He travels across the United States providing trainings to occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech pathologists, counselors, social workers, athletic trainers, teachers, and more. Bill uses tools such as balance boards, sand-filled bags, and racquetballs in a series of over 300 exercises. These materials and exercises are used to promote and develop balance, rhythm, focus, and movement. Occupational therapist Angela Morph has attended this training multiple times and explained the difference it makes in her work, “I thoroughly enjoyed it and was able to learn more. I have already started using it with most of my patients again with some new techniques and already see a difference.”

Bal-A-Vis-X transcends individual disciplines and its techniques can be applied with a range of ages from pediatric to geriatric populations. Michael Cillo attended the training and agrees with its wide-ranging uses, “Fantastic program! Best professional development I’ve ever attended. Practical and science proven ways to help children and adults.”

Interested in learning more about Bal-A-Vis-X? Pee Dee AHEC will be hosting the two-day, 17-hour training October 16-17, 2020, in Hartsville. This is a great opportunity to learn new strategies that can be used across disciplines and for a variety of populations. Find out more on Pee Dee AHEC’s website.

Marchek Siblings Stay Connected With Upstate AHEC Through Academic Journey

A pair of siblings from Greer are giving back to current Upstate AHEC Health Careers students after completing the program themselves. Alex Marchek, MD is in his first year as a family medicine resident at Prisma Health Seneca. His younger sister by two years, Anna Marchek, is a second-year medical student at Edward Via College of Medicine (VCOM) Carolinas. “My mom likes to say she did good,” Anna joked. “Both of her kids are going to be doctors. She went two-for-two.” Anna (left) and Alex (right) Marchek are pictured with Nita Donald, Executive Director of Upstate AHEC. While Alex and Anna have both chosen to pursue medicine as a career, their interest in healthcare developed differently. Alex describes his discovery of health sciences as a slow realization. “It was definitely something that was on my radar really young,” said Alex. “My parents will say when I was six years old, I was talking about doing something in medicine. I had some really great science teachers in elementar...

Pee Dee AHEC Clinical Placements Help Students See Challenges – and Opportunities – of Rural Primary Care

Third-year medical student Omar Guerrero didn’t find his passion for a career in healthcare until he began shadowing health professionals as an undergraduate student. “I just knew that I really loved science and working with my hands,” said Guerrero, who double-majored in Public Health and Cellular & Molecular Biology while at the University of South Florida. It all clicked for him once he was able to observe physicians in their encounters with patients. “I saw there was a real need for Spanish-speaking physicians,” said Guerrero. “There’s a lot of disconnect between providers and Spanish-speaking patients and I thought that was definitely an area that I could make a difference in.” Now in his third year at A.T. Still University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona, Guerrero is doing a clinical placement at Beaufort-Jasper-Hampton Comprehensive Health Services, Inc. in Richland. Guerrero was connected with Pee Dee AHEC and their Health Professions Student (HPS) program...

Simulation Training Prepares Students for Rural Primary Care

Since its inception in 2021, South Carolina AHEC’s Simulation Education Training (SET) has remained a favorite experience amongst health professions students statewide. Pee Dee AHEC Scholars and other health professions students pose for the camera during a simulation Since its inception in 2021, South Carolina AHEC’s Simulation Education Training (SET) has remained a favorite experience amongst health professions students statewide. SET uses simulation-based technology to expose students to clinical environments and scenarios that mirror what providers experience in rural, medically-underserved communities. “A lot of simulations are emergent or hospital-based and students are usually being graded as a formal assessment when they participate,” said SC AHEC Curriculum Coordinator Dawn Leberknight, who was heavily involved in the development of the initiative. “We tried to make [SET] more informal to expose students to simulations before it’s high stakes, and then to really focus on rura...

South Carolina AHEC News & Updates

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