Silber, an oncologist, can’t keep her good counsel within the confines of the Hospital of St. Raphael, so she’s taken her show on the road. Twice a month she holds “Doctor’s Day Out” at the thrift store. Many of the customers come from New Haven, and many have inadequate health insurance — or none at all.

With lots of pamphlets, emery board giveaways, and outreach worker Janet Brown by her side (that’s Silber on the left, Brown on the right in photo above), Silber engages customers in friendly banter while dispensing potentially life-saving information.

“Have you had a mammogram? Pap smear?” she asks the women. “Have you had your prostate checked?” she asks the men, noting to one African-American man (pictured, Robert Frye of New Haven, a retired state worker with health insurance and a timely prostate checkup) that prostate cancer is more prevalent among black men than other males.

And she encourages anyone who smokes to stop as soon as they can. Jennifer Rapp (pictured), who works at the thrift store, says she smokes “once in a while, because of stress,” but never inside the house and never around her two-year-old daughter. She recently lost her health care coverage, so outreach worker Brown made an appointment for her to get some care at St. Rafe’s.

She also engages the women — the younger ones at least — in a quick Q&A about protecting themselves from sexually transmitted diseases.

p(clear) This woman — in a friendly but adamant tone — informed Silber that Jesus is her doctor, and that she prays for healing when necessary, and her prayers are answered. She said she’d pray for the doctor. (And she did grab the hand of the hospital P.R. person, Rick Scavetta, outside the store and prayed with him.)

Silber, who was recently honored with the prestigious Lane Adams Quality of Life Award by the American Cancer Society, wants to reach people who would otherwise not likely come in to St. Raphael’s for care. She calls her visits to the thrift store “Doctor’s Day Out.” When it turns out that someone she’s referred for a screening has cancer, Silber has helped those without insurance get free care at the hospital.

She spent more than four hours there Wednesday afternoon, while the store was fairly busy.

Minnie Carr (pictured) is a home health aide and is getting ready to attend nursing school. (“We do all the work and the nurses get all the money,” she quipped.) She has basic health coverage that she buys herself - no dental, no eye care, and she must pay additionally for each doctor’s visit.

Asked if she thinks it’s odd for a doctor to be setting up shop inside a thrift store, she said absolutely not. “That’s the only way. A lot of times people don’t have the information and don’t know where to go get it. People are here to direct you to where you can go.”

Silber started the Sister to Sister program at the hospital to promote breast cancer screening and care among African American women and other underserved populations. It reached 1,543 women last year.

But, Silber said, now she reaches out to “anyone who needs cancer risk reduction, and that’s everyone.”

A fairly high percentage of those she spoke to on Wednesday had some kind of health insurance. But many of them are among the millions portrayed in Michael Moore’s film, Sicko, who are under-insured and so still don’t get all the health care they need.

This reporter spoke to several people in the store after their interaction with Silber. They all agreed with Minnie Carr that it was a good thing Silber was there, and they did not feel uncomfortable talking with her.

That’s just what Silber loves to hear.

“I would like people to feel they can get their care in a lot of different places, so the more normal it seems to people, the more they’ll talk to me about it. Most people are really really receptive,” she said, adding, “Just their degree of gratitude is wonderful.”

After five minutes with a reporter on a follow-up phone call, Silber called out in a somewhat louder voice, “Hi, can I help you with some information?” She was still in the store, still reeling shoppers over to her table.