Posted on Wednesday, July 19 2006 - 12:04 AM - Students

Dartmouth Medical School has been awarded a grant to expand the Mascoma Valley Free Health Clinic, which medical students launched through the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship program to bring health care to a community with few doctors and medical facilities.

It is one of eight schools to receive a 2006 AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) Caring for Community grant, effective July 1, for medical student community service programs. The AAMC program funds projects initiated, developed and administered by medical students in collaboration with community agencies or other outreach activities. It is supported by the Pfizer Medical Humanities Initiative for up to four years.

“The is a real tribute to our students' ethic of dedication and service, of their commitment to health care in our community and beyond. It is what being a physician and a citizen is all about,” said Dr. Stephen Spielberg, Dartmouth Medical School dean.

Dartmouth medical students established the clinic, a satellite of the Good Neighbor Clinic of White River Junction, Vermont, in 2003 to aid the medically underserved population in the Canaan, New Hampshire area. It expanded with funding from an Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Student Project Award and an Upper Valley United Way Emerging Needs grant, increasing access to medical care and medications for patients in need.

The AAMC grant will expand the scope of the Mascoma Clinic to include primary care services, more essential pharmaceutical resources and additional health education programs. During their second year almost half of the DMS class of 2008 volunteered at the clinic.

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