Mobile Clinics

What is a mobile clinic?  

A mobile clinic is different than a medical mission.  Typically when someone says medical mission they think of a foreign doctor working with a translator to provide medical care to poor patients in a developing country during a short trip.  The problem is what happens when the doctor returns home?  Who takes care of the patients?  Who provides follow up services?  Ultimately the important question is whether or not that leads to improvement in the lives of the poor or not?  MEDLIFE feels that while medical missions are well intended we have to push those good intentions to a higher and more committed level of services.  Enter the Mobile Clinic.  When we organize service trips to  developing countries its not about bringing an American doctor to provide services for a couple of weeks.  Instead we hire local doctors to provide the same services they provide everyday but to the poorest populations we can find.  We think of the mobile clinic as more of a physician extender, allowing local doctors to reach marginalized populations to provide therapeutic, diagnostic and educational services to the poorest of the poor.   By working with local doctors our patients receive culturally sensitive and sustainable services from doctors who live nearby.  Still MEDLIFE feels we can push this model further.  In many areas where the poorest of the poor live the only medical clinics available are run by the ministry of health of that country.  All too often we have seen that doctors working in these clinics are limited by the services they are able to provide their patients and yet they are the true heroes in the fight to provide quality healthcare to the poorest of the poor.  Whenever possible MEDLIFE seeks to partner with the ministry of health clinics and invite the providers from these clinics to work with us.  The result?  The same local doctor who provides services to the poorest of the poor year round is able to provide more services to his or her patients with MEDLIFE’s support.  We believe this is the most sustainable and culturally sensitive care that can be provided during a short term service trip.  

In addition to providing high quality care to our patients students who participate in our trips are able to learn about poverty, the root causes of disease and how most appropriately to support year long sustainable efforts on the ground.  Undergraduate students are introduced to these concepts through interactions with patients, providers and our staff.  Our hope is that through this introduction to issues in global health we can increase the number of students interested in pursuing careers that will ultimately improve the lives of people living in poverty.  When students feel a connection to our work after a service trip we encourage them to consider applying for a longer term internship or applying to work with the Student Advisory Board (SAB), a national student run board that works to increase the interest in service to the poor and provide long term, sustainable solutions to our partners working on the ground via the MEDLIFE Fund.  

If you are interested in participating in mobile clinic look at possible dates below and click apply. If you choose to apply to you will be asked to pay $100 (which is non-refundable) to hold your spot in that trip.  Your participation in the trip will be confirmed when you have completed 100% of the application, paid the full mission fee and purchased your ticket.  Then you’ll be ready to go!