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. Read more about Father Bill's & MainSpring in action here
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. View Report here
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. Training Emergency Care Providers in Rural Uganda
