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.”
- 30 -
News for
the week of Nov
14 –
Nov 19
