media highlights
10/25/2024 Swannanoa mobile clinic aids Helene victims with respiratory issues
Nicholas Oyarzun (24-26 Cohort) serves at MAHEC and is a critical part of Buncombe county’s disaster response. MAHEC partnered partnered with FEMA and local health departments to set up a mobile vaccination clinic in the Ingles parking lot in Swannanoa. The area is inundated with health consequences of flooding including Infections, illnesses, stress-related maladies and Nick and his team were supporting community members negatively effected by the mud and dust after the storm.
3/11/2021 Innovative State Service COVID-19 Response Programs
“Members are assisting with outreach and testing events, screening patients for symptoms, and even providing care coordination services in COVID-specific clinics. Through these events, they have helped provide care to over 14,000 patients since the pandemic began.”
11/13/2020 Drive-through test sites set up as COVID-19 cases increase in Mitchell, Yancey counties
10/1/2020 fellow feature: tsaiwei cheng
“One of the interesting phenomena I have come across as a MedServe Fellow in the WNC region is how people with very different background in culture, religion, and beliefs can come together and be a tight work family. To hear about it was one thing, but to actually experience it is different. The team here truly showed me how much of a team sport healthcare is.”
9/25/2020 Let’s get engaged podcast. episode 5: medserve nc
9/22/20 rebuilding america: a national service podcast. episode 2: healing america
“And what we see is that when we place one MedServe fellow, next year the clinic is asking for two. We place two, the next year they're asking for four. And so I do think that there's a lot of capacity for us to grow. We always want to be thoughtful about what that means. I think that we take a lot of pride in the experience being high quality and not just being a matchmaker who then is just matching bodies to needs.”
3/31/20 Kickstarting medical careers
“Dr. Batish modeled the MLK scholarship idea around MedServe, a nonprofit organization with a mission to improve the health of medically underserved communities of North Carolina while giving future physicians a career path in primary care practice that inspires them to be life-long champions of health equity… He was inspired by the organization’s mission after a medical student from Chapel Hill had a rotation at his office.”
3/23/20 Open up hotels? asheville homeless community scrambles for coronavirus action
3/6/2020 Fellow feature: shantell mclaggan
“This experience has definitely made me more inquisitive when it comes to our patients' backgrounds and life stories, as well as more aware of the potential barriers to care that they often face. Applying historical context as well as personal life situations to giving care feels more natural to me now than it ever has.”
02/26/2020 TWO HONORS STUDENTS OFFERED MEDSERVE FELLOWS POSITIONS
Godgive Umozurike, a public health major in the class of 2020, received an offer at Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center in Ahoskie, N.C. Sarah Kautz, a public health major in the class of 2020, was offered a position with Cabarrus Rowan Community Health Center in Concord, N.C.
11/15/2019 Fellow feature: deanna turner
“I love working with children but I feel like working with the specific demographic of children within Adventure Rowan has given me the opportunity to interact in a different way. The majority of our children are minorities, specifically Hispanic. It is nice to be able to culturally relate with the children while also showing them that they can eat some of their favorite meals, but just with slight changes or in moderation.”
08/22/2019 N.C. trio awarded ECU’s most prestigious scholarship
“I recognized the necessity and void of physicians for the underserved,” said Garcia, adding this awareness was solidified during the two years he spent working with Piedmont Health Services through MedServe, which matches college graduates interested in careers in medicine with primary care physicians in rural and underserved areas of North Carolina.
8/14/2019 Polk County Public Health Services now offered in collaboration with Blue Ridge Health on Walker Street in Columbus
08/06/2019 Treating a Chronic Disease, Beginning with Mental Health
07/30/2019 Clinic Steps Up Efforts to Protect the Hands that Feed WNC
“It gives us a really good access point to the workers,” Claire Chang, a MedServe fellow at Blue Ridge Health, said. “Because the other big things from a public health standpoint that we’re worried about are chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension that are extremely large issues among our migrant population.”
04/03/2019 MedServe: Getting Things Done For Health Equity
“There is a shortage of primary care providers in the United States, and it’s expected to to get worse...Several solutions are needed to address a health equity issue this large. The MedServe program of North Carolina offers an innovative example of how an AmeriCorps program can help make a dent in these numbers.”
02/28/2019 Interview with Dr. Richard Bunio of Cherokee Indian Hospital Regarding the Implementation of a MedServe Fellow
“It seemed innovative and we’re always looking for new recruitment strategies. We even make efforts at the high school here to try and spur interest in healthcare. The hope with the MedServe fellow(s) is that they will pursue a healthcare career and will come back and practice in the area.”
12/17/2018 Pediatrician and Social Entrepreneur: Meet Dr. Anne Steptoe [Episode 246]
“I didn’t realize it, but I had been doing research for MedServe for a long time, seeing the disconnect between being a doctor and the impact I wanted to make. I understood my colleagues and their similar experience, so I had more pieces to start the company than I realized.”
08/02/2018 A new Teach for America-style program takes on health workforce shortages
"Often the people we want to invest scholarship money in—because of where they grew up or their personal connection to underserved communities—either have too much difficulty getting into places like medical school or they have not had the same exposure either to be competitive or to be ready for the scholarship opportunities. And so, our fellows who come and do two years in the program have made a pretty big demonstration of their commitment that we have found to be really attractive to our medical schools and other partners."
05/05/2017 Medserve documentary: rocky mount
05/05/2017 Medserve explainer
“MedServe connects medical students with small communities in need of higher-quality medical care. The program seeks out the most qualified individuals with a passion for making smaller communities better.”
01/05/2017 Helping solve a health care shortage
“Being here has really pushed me to think about family medicine in the future. Being able to see the whole person and treat the whole person has become extremely important to me.”
10/18/2016 Project seeks MHS seniors for medical internships
07/27/2016 Innovative MedServe Program Aims to Reduce Shortage of Primary Care Physicians
07/19/2016 Why your doctor is a social entrepreneur
“Our MedServe clinics engage in local issues revolving around housing and homelessness, food quality, and worker conditions. Given all we that know about socioeconomic and community factors impacting health, how can modern doctors truly do their job and not get involved in social impact work?”
07/18/2016 This health-care start-up wants to be the Teach For America for future doctors
“We offer some “checklist” things (including clinical experience for budding doctors), but the core of our mission is to foster passion that sustains idealists like myself through the brutal medical education process. In doing so, we believe we can show young people a different picture of primary care–one full of small successes and deep inspiration.”
07/14/2016 Fellowship program brings doctors to underserved rural communities
07/11/2016 MedServe: An Investment in our State
“At UNC, we constantly strive to provide empathetic, expert care to all North Carolinians. This is what we call complete care. I am thrilled that MedServe is taking part in our ambitious, yet necessary, mission.”
06/28/2016 A great match – college grads who want medical experience and clinics that have needs
“Unlike 88 percent of medical students, she (Jiyun Chang) wants to be a primary-care doctor. She is now taking part in MedServe, a new program that seeks to inspire interest in primary-care and community-based health careers for high-potential college graduates who are on track for medical school.”
06/21/2016 New Program Launches to Address North Carolina’s Shortage of Primary Care Physicians
“This program is a great opportunity for the students to be exposed to all of the human elements that go into the practice of medicine. You’ll get the science in medical school, but being a physician is an art as much as a science. The most important thing we do is connect with our patients in order to get them to buy into what we know will help them. You can have the greatest training in the world, but if you can’t connect with patients it’s all wasted.”
06/16/2016 How two MD/MBA students might revolutionize rural doctor training
05/14/2016 MedServe is a winning idea
“UNC system president Margaret Spellings introduced the MedServe founder, Anne Steptoe, to the Board of Governers during her second presidential report last month, congratulating the startup for winning the North Carolina Social Entrepreneurship Contest. Social entrepreneurs Steptoe and O’Shea are both matriculating towards MBA degrees at Duke while respectively pursing MDs from Brown University and Carolina.”
4/20/2016 MedServe: Leveraging HSM Degrees for Good in North Carolina
03/03/2016 INNOVATING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
03/03/2016 UNC-CHAPEL HILL TEAMS WIN 2016 SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP CONFERENCE
2/26/2016 From Idea to Launch: How Fuqua MBAs Began MedServe & 4 Lessons They Learned in Launching a Social Venture
02/24/2016 WINNERS SELECTED AT 2016 SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP CONFERENCE
Winner: MedServe, UNC-Chapel Hill – essentially, a healthcare version of Teach for America, providing students interested in careers in health care with an opportunity to get hands-on experience in struggling rural health clinics.