by Jennifer Kowalewski

OU-COM and Community Service Programs (CSP) garnered statewide attention in the November issue of Ohio magazine by being honored as one of “Ohio Heroes.”

Richard Osborne, editor of Ohio, says the “Ohio Heroes” feature showcases people and organizations that help make Ohio a better place. Ohio writers and editors look for candidates for “Ohio Heroes” candidates throughout the year. The feature is now in its second year.

Christine Sram, a senior journalism major at E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, wrote the piece on OU-COM after learning about CSP’s Mobile Heath Van from an OU-COM professor.

Sram, who worked for Ohio in Cleveland this summer as an intern, wrote “Salon on Wheels,” an article about a van that heads to communities to offer haircuts. Following the story, OU-COM Huzoor Akbar, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology, told her about CSP and its vans.

Sram says she also learned a lot about the CSP programs that the van makes possible from Kathy Trace, R.N., director of CSP and Melanie Moynan-Smith, CSP nurse practitioner. She also got a tour of a van.

“I thought the Mobile Health Van was worthy of a story,” Sram says. “It’s a wonderful thing.” Chris Simpson, D.O.; associate professor of family medicine; Moynan-Smith; Dean Jack Brose, D.O.; and Trace were pictured (shown above) in the feature. Simpson and Brose lend their skills as physicians in service of the vans' mission.

The first of two 40-foot medical vans started serving 21 countries in Southeastern Ohio in 1994. OU-COM health-care professionals ride the van to churches, schools, libraries, parking lots and food pantries, as well as places such as Wal-Mart, to perform hundreds of blood pressure screenings, breast exams, physicals, Pap smears and provide other preventive and referral services every year.

This year alone, CSP has provided more than 15,000 immunizations through the Childhood Immunization Program. In May, the Sisters of Joseph Charitable Fund, in conjunction with OU-COM’s Department of Family Medicine and the Appalachian Rural Health Institute (ARHI), provided money to help use the van as part of CSP’s Free Clinic initiative. The Free Clinic reaches out to families without primary care physicians or health insurance.

OU-COM’s programs reach out to people in across the region, doing an enormous job of providing health-care services to the underserved in the Southeastern Ohio, says Simpson, who is co-director of ARHI.

“It is quite an honor to be featured in Ohio magazine,” says Simpson. “The people of rural Ohio have health-care needs we are able to address through Community Service Programs’ outreach. This article will help us get the word out about the program both for the individuals that may need help and providers who want to help.”

“We debated a long time about the use of the word ‘heroes,’ especially during a time of war,” Osborne says. “We really felt it was appropriate though. We want to celebrate the people in Ohio. But these organizations are not the only ones making the community better. Our feature is not a competition. This is showcasing organizations making the community and the state better.”