The University of South Alabama’s Midtown Pediatrics Clinic became home to what officials describe as the most advanced child abuse screening equipment in the state this week, thanks to an $11,000 grant from the St. Francis Fund at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
The Child Advocacy Center of Mobile used the grant to purchase new imaging equipment for the university’s Screening for Child Abuse and Neglect Clinic, replacing a colposcope that had been in service since 1992, when it was originally purchased through a U.S. Department of Justice grant. Pat Guyton, executive director of the Child Advocacy Center, said the old device had become increasingly unreliable as replacement bulbs grew harder to find.
The new digital equipment can magnify tissue up to 75 times, giving physicians the ability to spot injuries invisible to the naked eye. Dr. Jessica Kirk, clinical director of the SCAN Clinic, said the added light source and magnification can reveal microscopic injuries that could prove important to a child’s case, information she said the human eye alone simply cannot capture. The device also allows doctors to photograph findings during an exam, with images automatically saved for medical and legal records.
Kirk is one of only three doctors in Alabama certified in child abuse pediatrics by the American Board of Pediatrics; the other two practice at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She performs between 100 and 150 exams using the clinic’s colposcope each year.
Guyton said the clinic’s reach extends well beyond Mobile County, serving surrounding counties in south Alabama that lack similar specialized resources. Representatives from the Child Advocacy Center, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, the St. Francis Fund and USA’s pediatrics program gathered at the clinic this week to mark the equipment’s arrival, calling it a milestone for how the region investigates and responds to suspected abuse and neglect cases.
The upgrade comes as advocates across the region continue pushing for more resources dedicated to identifying and documenting abuse early, work that often depends on partnerships between hospitals, nonprofits and law enforcement to fund specialized equipment that might otherwise be out of reach for a single agency’s budget.