Community Action & Care for the Medically Underinsured
- The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship — $25,000 to support the Boston Schweitzer Fellows Program, the oldest of 13 such programs in the United States. The fellows program supports students in medicine and other health professions who are engaged in community service projects that promote health and improve access to health care for underserved populations.
2011-2012 Final Report to MMS (.pdf, 6 pages)
Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro West — $10,000 to support the organization’s Triple Play Program for Hudson youth in grades two through seven. The program demonstrates how eating right, staying fit, and forming positive relationships lead to a healthy lifestyle.
Cuttyhunk Medical Services — $5,000 to improve medical equipment and advance an island-wide health project designed to mitigate Lyme disease and Erlichiosis.
Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center — $25,000 to support a dedicated half-time pediatric care coordinator to facilitate medical coordination, provide family education, and help with other non-medical determinants of health such as housing, school issues, and financial subsistence.
MAP for Health — $20,000 to support the establishment of a community health access network to increase screening for and detection of hepatitis B in Asian and Pacific Islanders.
Holyoke Health Center — $10,000 to support the Futuro Saludable (Healthy Future) project, which provides children and families with education, community linkages, and support in a provider-led group setting to help them make lifestyle changes that promote healthy eating and increased physical activity.
Father Bill’s & MainSpring — $10,000 to support the MainSpring Clinic Project in Brockton, which provides basic medical care, testing, and screening and helps patients with insurance and referral to primary care physicians.
Metro West Free Medical Program — $20,000 to support the continued expansion of a multidisciplinary approach to combatting chronic disease in the low-income uninsured and underinsured population in Framingham, Marlborough, and surrounding communities
Peer Health Exchange — $15,000 to support the training of 475 volunteers from 6 college sites to deliver a comprehensive health curriculum to 4,000 ninth-grade students in Boston public schools with the goal of increasing high school students’ ability to make healthy decisions and fostering a commitment to public service among college student volunteers.
REACH Beyond Domestic Violence — $10,000 to support the Peers Against ViolencE (PAVE) program, a teen dating violence prevention initiative that includes classroom-based education for students, training for faculty and clinical staff, technical assistance and support for peer leadership groups, policy work with administration, and monitoring and evaluation.
The Sharewood Project — $7,500 to support the medical student–run Malden health clinic, ,including improving the functional capability of their electronic medical record system and increasing network security, implementing new Sharewood awareness projects, and allowing for the continued offering of lab testing services.
Sociedad Latina — $10,000 to support expansion of mental health services provided to Latino youth and families in the community through an enhanced case management program and weekly mental health workshops for families.
Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires — $10,000 to support the clinic’s case management program, which provides access to primary, preventive, and episodic health and dental care and care coordination, follow-up, and referral services for uninsured and underinsured adults.
Whittier Street Health Center — $30,000 to support the implementation of the CenteringParenting™ program, a model that integrates three major components of care — health assessment, education, and support — into unified care within a group setting.
International Health Studies
Alana Arnold, a fourth-year medical student at Tufts University School of Medicine who completed a clinical elective at the Sao Rafael Hospital in Salvador, Brazil, where she focused on inpatient pediatrics, as well as exposure to the PICU, pediatric ER, and radiology and anesthesiology. The hospital houses over 85 residents in 21 specialties.
Pooja Mehta, MD, a third-year OB/GYN resident at Boston University/Boston Medical Center and one of four Boston-based OB/GYN resident physicians travelling in succession to Bayalpata Hospital in Achham, Nepal, during the 2011–2012 academic year. Together they are implementing a research project on determinants of institutional delivery with the help of local staff. It is anticipated that the outcomes of their research will have important implications for health messaging, education, and outreach as obstetric care access is improved in this setting.
Julia E. von Oettingen, MD, a third-year pediatric resident at the Massachusetts General Hospital for Children who coordinated and expanded the diabetes program at the JFK Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. This included teaching physician assistants and residents who see diabetic patients in the outpatient department and providers in the emergency room who see newly diagnosed or acutely ill diabetic patients. Teaching focused on the clinical presentations of type 1 diabetes, glucometer use, management of diabetic ketoacidosis, inpatient and outpatient management of children with diabetes, and review of previously established diabetes protocols.
Sushama A. Saijwani, MD, a third-year emergency medicine resident at Boston Medical Center who worked alongside emergency practitioners (EPs) in training at Nyakibale Hospital in Uganda to teach management of common patient presentations to their ER. This entailed a mutual exchange of knowledge, during which she learned from the EPs the most common medical presentations they encounter in the ER and the local resources available to them for treatment. This communication is essential to teaching practical skills and learning how to problem solve and improvise with limited resources in the ER setting.
