- November 1, 2024
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Updated Jan. 8
Dr. Steven Bickel had been a physician for more than 40 years. But when he moved from Los Angeles to Flagler County in 2011, he was in retirement.
“But I never stay away from medicine for too long,” he said.
Shortly after finding out about the Flagler County Free Clinic, he was able to obtain his Florida medical license. He also started working with the Flagler Department of Health in 2012, and a couple of years ago, the HIV clinic was created at the DOH. Bickel, who had prior experience in treating the illness, was made the treating physician.
The program currently services about 100 patients in the county. Bickel said he typically sees three types: transfers from other clinics, newly diagnosed and those who have full-blown AIDS — patients whose immune systems are so beaten down that they’re at risk of dying from an infectious disease.
“Dr. Bickel has been instrumental in many initiatives, including overseeing a high- quality HIV program and a chronic hepatitis C program. He is an accomplished physician, mentor, advocate, tireless volunteer and generous philanthropist. We are fortunate to be affiliated with him and are grateful for his dedication to improving public health in our region.”
Robert Snyder, Flagler County Department of Health administrator
However, Bickel said you don’t exactly cure HIV. The goal is to get to a “high level of control.”
The HIV program has made significant strides since its inception, with about 98% of its patients achieving a high level of control, according to its most recent audit.
“There’s still a lot of stigma with HIV. It’s really like treat- ing high blood pressure nowadays. It’s really not that hard,” said Bickel, who was named the Humanitarian of the Year by the Florida Hospital Flagler Foundation. “It’s like if you told someone that they had metastatic cancer. You can’t cure it, but all you have to do is take a pill with minimal side effects every day for the rest of your life and your cancer would never progress. It would totally change how we think about cancer. That’s how it is with HIV.”
Bickel is a treating physician in another program that was started more recently: the Flagler DOH’s hepatitis C clinic.
Treatment of hepatitis C has seen a paradigm shift over the past decade, according to Bickel. It’s gone from an incurable disease, to one that was highly difficult and expensive to treat and, finally, to one that’s much easier to cure.
The clinic, which was started this year, has treated about 10 patients so far.
“The impact is huge,” Bickel said. “They have a chance to be cured of it and not even need medicine after a while.”
In the works for 2019 is a diabetes education program. Bickel is a consultant on that project. The goal is to train people on how to manage their diabetes.
“There’s a big difference in knowing how to manage it versus going through the motions,” he said. “It’s a fairly labor-intensive process to keep on top of it. A lot of people just walk through it.”
Bickel hopes to see the Flagler DOH transform even more in the next few years.
“We have big plans. Even though Flagler County is small, we want it to be state-of-the- art in terms of its capabilities with programs,” he said. “The people I’m working with are cool people. They’re bright. They’re motivated. They’re talented. And they want to improve the community. It’s just been fun to see things grow.”
Editor's Note: This story was clarified to show that the Flagler County Free Clinic is not affiliated with the Flagler County Department of Health.
