Pediatrician Diego Chaves-Gnecco arrived in Pittsburgh as its Latino population was going through a growth spurt. He probably would have finished his two-year fellowship in clinical pharmacology at Children's Hospital and moved on in 1999, but he kept getting offers to stay.

Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Dr. Diego Chaves-Gnecco reads a book with Ciro Jaimes, 5, inside Children's Hospital's Care Mobile on the South Side. Once a month, free care for children is available at the van and Chaves-Gnecco volunteers his services. Click photo for larger image. More profiles Today, Your Health presents its annual Dozen Making A Difference, focusing on 12 people in our community who are working to improve our health, our well-being and our futures. Visit our Dozen Making a Difference index page for links to the other profiles.

He completed a pediatrics residency here for a U.S. board certification. He got a master's degree in public health. And, as he wove his life into the fabric of the Spanish-speaking community, the 35-year-old native of Colombia got a big idea.

The C.O.R.E. experience -- community-oriented residency education -- gave Chaves-Gnecco [YEN-eco] creative latitude to explore the needs of Spanish-speaking residents of the area. From 1990 to 2000, Allegheny County's Latino population grew from 8,700 to 11,166, according to the U.S. Census. The increase has been greater regionwide, with a growing concentration in Washington County.

When in 2002, he suggested a Tuesday afternoon clinic for patients who speak Spanish and Portugese, the response was: " 'Where are you going to get your patients?' People think there are no Latin Americans in Pittsburgh." He advertised the service to worshippers at the Sunday Spanish mass at St. Hyacinth in Oakland. "People started coming, and then it was by word of mouth."

The clinic has seen more than 1,000 patients and has more than 100 regular patients.

For this innovation, Chaves-Gnecco won the American Academy of Pediatrics' 2004 Resident CATCH [Community Access To Child Health] Grant and its 2004 Anne E. Dyson Child Advocacy Award.

This fall, he initiated a service using a van as an outreach called Salud Para Ninos, or Health For Children.

The van, which offers free, walk-in health care for children, arrives at the Birmingham Clinic at the Salvation Army on the South Side -- 54 S. Ninth St. -- the second Saturday of each month at 10 a.m. Chaves-Gnecco volunteers his time to this mobile practice, as do some of his colleague doctors and medical students.

This outreach is not solely about medical care, he said. Many parents don't know that their babies born in this country qualify for insurance or that the older siblings, born elsewhere, can apply for it. The doctors help them through the process. Many don't know there is a law requiring the use of car seats for small children, so the outreach service checks car seats for appropriateness. Sometimes, the need is simple. "One woman who had a baby just wanted to know where she could buy Hispanic food."

Dr. Dena Hofkosh, director of the residency program, said Chaves-Gnecco "has made services at the hospital more accessible to this population and done wonderful grassroots outreach by going to churches and neighborhood celebrations where these families were to talk about the availability of services. He worked very hard with a lot of support from a variety of people here at Children's to get people to come in."

Chaves-Gnecco has a long list of mentors and contributors to his efforts.

"The residency program at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh has allowed me not only to learn how to become a successful pediatrician in the United States, but it has also given me the opportunity to give back to our community."