The Mascoma Valley Free Health Clinic, run through Dartmouth Medical School, was awarded a grant of $8,000 on July 13 by the Association of American Medical Schools as part of its Caring for Community grant program. The clinic in Canaan is completely student-run and received the grant to develop its free services for the Mascoma Valley community.
Opened in 2003, the clinic offers services two nights a month and generally sees five to six patients each session. Ceil Furlong, nurse case manager for Good Neighbors Health Community in White River Junction, which is also funded by the Medical School and staffed by students, says that the clinic still manages to provide a "very wide array" of non-emergency medical care, citing high blood pressure, musculoskeletal problems and asthma as the top three most commonly-treated illnesses.
The grant will mostly go toward funding medications for the clinic's patients, though some of the funds will go toward upgrading the clinic's equipment, as well as community outreach.
"One emphasis we really want to focus on is outreach because I know a lot of people don't even know that we're there," Furlong said.
Dartmouth could stand to receive $12,000 more over the next four years if it meets the goals stated in the grant's application. Eight other medical schools received grants this year, including Emory University School of Medicine and Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Since its creation in 2000, the Caring for Community program, which is sponsored by the Pfizer Medical Humanities Initiative, has distributed more than $1 million to 61 schools across the country.
"We are very proud to support and honor the students who have committed themselves to such valuable community service projects," Mike Magee, director of the Pfizer Medical Humanities Initiative, said in press release. "These initiatives will inevitably benefit underserved individuals and direct resources to where they are needed most."
According to the Valley News, almost half of the third-year medical students at the Medical School volunteered at the clinic last year and many have seen it as an chance to interact with the community in a way they may not be able to after graduation.
"I think it's a great opportunity for the medical students to learn what it's like for people who are accessing healthcare but don't have insurance," Furlong said.
