The Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, aka VCOM partnered with Baxter Institute to re-open the James Moody Adams (JMA) Clinic , serving a population of families earning less than a dollar per capita per day in an impoverished area of Tegucigalpa. The site offers primary care, gynecology and prenatal services, and dentistry. The clinic operate an on-site pharmacy to supply the pharmaceutical needs of patients. Clinical rotations for third and fourth year VCOM students take place in both the clinic and the local hospital.
Training for Self-Sufficiency
The JMA Clinic also features a Nutrition and Training Center, which assists the families of children who are evaluated as malnourished by the clinic’s physicians. Mothers in this program attend vocational training classes, equipping them to support their families, and participation qualifies their families for supplemental food baskets. Families receive visits from the clinic nutritionist and social worker to provide assistance and ensure donated food is being used appropriately. The program has a high success and completion rate.
Training First Responders
Each year VCOM offers a First Responder Training Workshop to the graduating class of ministers at the Baxter Institute. During the 16-hour course, students learn CPR, wound care, and patient stabilization. VCOM provides graduates with a backpack equipped with CPR masks, blood pressure cuffs, thermometers, first aid kits, and other items. This knowledge and equipment is crucial for ministers to serve as health educators in remote communities of Latin America.
The Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) is located on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It has expanded to include a medical school on the campus of Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C. and an upcoming medical school on the campus of Auburn University in Auburn, AL.
VCOM’s mission is:
- To prepare globally-minded, community-focused physicians to meet the needs of rural and medically underserved populations, and
- To promote research to improve human health.
In 2008, VCOM entered into an agreement with Baxter Institute’s medical clinic, dental clinic, and pharmacy allowing VCOM to use the clinic as a medical mission internship site. This partnership has expanded the work of the Baxter Clinic through mobile clinics, medical research, and care which is internationally-recognized. VCOM’s third- and fourth-year medical students are offered the opportunity of a one-month rotation at Baxter. While staying on Baxter’s campus to participate in the clinic’s activities, they also are extended opportunities to work with local physicians in two nearby hospitals. They gain experience by assisting in the emergency, obstetrics, gynecology, and pediatric departments.
Both VCOM and Honduran medical students benefit from the exchange of knowledge resulting in a sustainable improvement of health care. VCOM and other groups that come to help the poor and downtrodden are wonderfully generous in bringing medicines and other resources that Baxter doesn’t have the money to buy. VCOM has even previously offered a First Responder Training seminar for our second and third year Baxter students. We are blessed to have VCOM assisting our clinic and partnering with Baxter to share God’s love in surrounding communities!