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An oath to save lives against a backdrop of growing disparities
Practicing in the field of obstetrics and gynecology affords us a special privilege: we are part of the most important and unforgettable events in our patients’ lives, both in sickness and in health. Along with the great joys we share comes profound responsibility and the recognition that we are only as effective as the team with whom we work. Although we live in a country that is home to some of the best health care systems in the world, the maternal mortality rates and disease burden among women in underserved communities belie this fact. A University of Washington study demonstrated a more than 20-year gap in life expectancy between wealthy and poor communities in the United States from 1980 to 2014.1 Not surprisingly, access to medical care was a contributing factor.
Poverty only partly explains this disparity. Racial differences are at play as well. In 1992, a seminal study by Schoendorf and colleagues2 demonstrated that the death rates of babies born to educated African American parents were higher due to lower birth weights. Concern recently has been amplified, and many lay publications have publicly raised the alarm.3 Several states have started investigating the causes, and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, as well as other organizations, are studying possible solutions.
With nearly 50% of US births financed by Medicaid,5 there was great hope that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and expansion of Medicaid would result in improved access and quality of health care for underserved patients; however, it has become apparent that coverage did not confer improved access to quality care, especially for medical specialties.
Urban and rural poor populations generally seek medical services from safety net clinics staffed by midlevel and physician primary care providers whose tight schedules, documentation demands, and low reimbursement rates are coupled with complex medical and socioeconomic patient populations. While these providers may be skilled in basic primary care, their patients often present with conditions outside their scope of practice. Our country’s growing physician shortage, along with patient location and personal logistics, adds to the challenges for patients and providers alike. And who among us is not asked several times a week, even by our well-insured patients, for a primary care or specialist physician recommendation? The barriers for seeking medical care in rural populations are even greater, as local hospitals and clinics are closing at an alarming rate.
Alumni at work
Communities of physicians across the country recognize both the access problem and the potential to create solutions. Organizations such as Project ECHO, launched in 2003 through the University of New Mexico, connect rural providers with university physicians to aid in treatment of hepatitis C and other illnesses.
As the date for implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act approached, a group of medical school alumni leaders recognized that we could come together and offer our services to address growing health care disparities. Galvanized by the challenge, the Medical Alumni Volunteer Expert Network, or MAVEN Project, was, in our parlance, “born.”
While the concept of the MAVEN Project was germinating, we interviewed numerous colleagues for advice and input and were struck by their desire—especially among the newly retired—to continue to give back. Medicine is a calling, not just a job, and for many of us the joy of helping—the exhilaration of that first birth that sold us on our specialty—gives us meaning and purpose. Many physicians who had left full-time clinical medicine missed the collegiality of the “doctors’ lounge.” Throughout our careers, we are part of a cohort: our medical school class, our residency partners, our hospital staff—we all crave community. With 36% of US physicians older than age 55 and 240,000 retired doctors in the country, we realized a motivated, previously untapped workforce could be marshaled to form a community to serve the most vulnerable among us.5
At the same time, telemedicine had come into its own. Simple technology could enable us to see each other on smartphones and computers and even perform portions of a physical examination from afar.
We realized we could marry opportunity (the workforce), need (underserved populations across the country), and technology. The Harvard Medical School Center Primary Care supported a feasibility study, and the MAVEN Project began “seeing” patients in 2016.
What happens when a safety net clinic receives a donation of life-altering oral diabetes medications but their providers lack the expertise to use them appropriately? A closet full of drugs. That is what the MAVEN Project discovered at one of our partner clinics. Enter our volunteer endocrinologist. She consulted with the medical team, reviewed how each medication should be prescribed and monitored, and gave instructions on which patients with diabetes would benefit the most from them.
The closet is emptying, the clinic providers are confidently prescribing the newest therapies, and patients are enjoying improved blood sugars and quality of life!
A model of hope
The MAVEN Project matches physician volunteers with safety net clinics serving patients in need and provides malpractice insurance and a Health Information Portability and Accountability Act–compliant technology platform to facilitate remote communication. Our volunteers mentor and educate primary care providers in the field and offer both immediate and asynchronous advisory consults. Clinic providers can group cases for discussion, ask urgent questions, or receive advice and support for the day-to-day challenges facing clinicians today. Clinics choose educational topics, focusing on tools needed for patient care rather than esoteric mechanisms of disease. Patients receive best-in-class care conveniently and locally, and by making volunteering easy, we build partnerships that augment patient and provider satisfaction, support long-term capacity building, and improve service delivery.
Our volunteer physicians now represent more than 30 medical specialties and 25 medical schools, and we have completed more than 2,000 consultations to date. Our clinics are located in 6 states (California, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, South Dakota, and Washington), and thanks to our model, physician state of licensure is not an impediment to volunteering. Several colleagues in our specialty are providing advice in women’s health.
Driving innovative solutions
Elizabeth Kopin, MD, an ObGyn who practiced for 28 years in Worcester, Massachusetts, and volunteers for the MAVEN Project, eloquently described in correspondence with Project coordinators the spirit that embodies the pursuit of medicine and the organization’s mission. As Dr. Kopin stated, “The driving force behind my entering medicine was to help people in an essential and meaningful way. I was especially driven to participate in the care of women. I wanted to gain knowledge and skills to help women with health care throughout their lives.”
Dr. Kopin’s capacity to care for patients in the clinic and hospital was progressively reduced as her multiple sclerosis advanced. As a result, she retired from clinical practice, but her desire to participate and contribute to medicine with the passion with which she entered it remained.
Her father was an internist who started a charitable clinic in Georgia. Like her father, Dr. Kopin began her medical career in academic medicine. Her father felt that his last 15 years in medicine were the most meaningful of his career because of his work with underserved populations. Dr. Kopin is following in his footsteps. For her, “Looking for a telehealth vehicle helping communities in need gives me the opportunity to use my abilities in the best way possible.” Dr. Kopin also stated, “Helping the underserved was something I wanted to devote my time to and The MAVEN Project has given me that possibility.”
We like to think of ourselves as Match. com meets the Peace Corps, with the goal to reach underserved patients in all 50 states in both rural and urban communities. We ask for as little as 4 hours of your time per month, and all you need is a computer or smartphone and a medical license. We welcome volunteers in active or part-time practice, academics, and industry: your years of wisdom are invaluable.
The vast complexities of the US health care system are by no measure easy to address, but standing by and allowing a fractured system to rupture is not an option. Each of us has an expertise and an opportunity to make incremental steps to ensure that those who need health care do not slip through the cracks. Dr. Kopin and I are fortunate to have a skill to help others and, in the MAVEN Project, a robust, dedicated network of individuals who share our vision.
There are many who have and continue to inspire a guiding conscience to serve beyond oneself. George H.W. Bush said it best when explaining why he founded the Points of Light organization nearly 3 decades ago6:
I have pursued life itself over many years now and with varying degrees of happiness. Some of my happiness still comes from trying to be in my own small way a true “point of light.” I believe I was right when I said, as President, there can be no definition of a successful life that does not include service to others. So I do that now, and I gain happiness. I do not seek a Pulitzer Prize. I do not want press attention…. I have found happiness. I no longer pursue it, for it is mine.
Please join us on our mission!
How to join
We are actively seeking specialty and primary care physicians to provide advisory consultations, mentorship, and education via telehealth technology. We welcome physician volunteers who:
- are newly retired, semi-retired, in industry, or in clinical practice
- have a minimum of 2 years of clinical practice experience
- have been active in the medical community in the past 3 years
- have an active or volunteer US medical license (any state)
- are able to provide 3 professional references
- are willing to commit a minimum of 4 hours per month for 6 months.
Visit us online to complete our physician volunteer inquiry form (https://www.mavenproject.org/work-with-us/#wwu-volunteer-as-a-physician-lightblue).
Share your thoughts! Send your Letter to the Editor to rbarbieri@mdedge.com. Please include your name and the city and state in which you practice.
- Dwyer-Lindgren L, Bertozzi-Villa A, Stubbs RW, et al. Inequalities in life expectancy among US counties, 1980 to 2014: temporal trends and key drivers. JAMA Intern Med. 2017;177:1003-1011.
- Schoendorf KC, Hogue CJ, Kleinman JC, et al. Mortality among infants of black as compared with white college-educated parents. N Engl J Med. 1992;326:1522-1526.
- Villarosa L. Why America's black mothers and babies are in a life-or-death crisis. New York Times. April 11, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/11/magazine/black-mothers-babies-death-maternal-mortality.html. Accessed August 14, 2018.
- Smith VK, Gifford K, Ellis E, et al; The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation; The National Association of Medical Directors. Implementing coverage and payment initiatives: results from a 50-state Medicaid budget survey for state fiscal years 2016 and 2017. http://files.kff.org/attachment/Report-Implementing-Coverage-and-Payment-Initiatives. Published October 2006. Accessed August 14, 2018.
- Association of American Medical Colleges. 2016 Physician Specialty Data Report: Executive Summary. https://www.aamc.org/download/471786/data/2016physicianspecialtydatareportexecutivesummary.pdf. Accessed August 23, 2018.
- Miller RW. Jenna Bush Hager shares George H.W. Bush 'point of light' letter after Trump jab. USA TODAY. July 7, 2018. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/07/07/jenna-bush-hager-shares-george-h-w-bush-point-light-letter-donald-trump/765248002/. Accessed August 14, 2018.
Laurie Green, MD
Dr. Green is Vice-Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. She also is the founder of the MAVEN Project and Past President of the Harvard Medical Alumni Association, the San Francisco Gynecological Society, and the California Academy of Medicine. She is a full-time ObGyn in San Francisco.
The author reports no financial relationships relevant to this article.
Laurie Green, MD
Dr. Green is Vice-Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. She also is the founder of the MAVEN Project and Past President of the Harvard Medical Alumni Association, the San Francisco Gynecological Society, and the California Academy of Medicine. She is a full-time ObGyn in San Francisco.
The author reports no financial relationships relevant to this article.
Laurie Green, MD
Dr. Green is Vice-Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. She also is the founder of the MAVEN Project and Past President of the Harvard Medical Alumni Association, the San Francisco Gynecological Society, and the California Academy of Medicine. She is a full-time ObGyn in San Francisco.
The author reports no financial relationships relevant to this article.
Practicing in the field of obstetrics and gynecology affords us a special privilege: we are part of the most important and unforgettable events in our patients’ lives, both in sickness and in health. Along with the great joys we share comes profound responsibility and the recognition that we are only as effective as the team with whom we work. Although we live in a country that is home to some of the best health care systems in the world, the maternal mortality rates and disease burden among women in underserved communities belie this fact. A University of Washington study demonstrated a more than 20-year gap in life expectancy between wealthy and poor communities in the United States from 1980 to 2014.1 Not surprisingly, access to medical care was a contributing factor.
Poverty only partly explains this disparity. Racial differences are at play as well. In 1992, a seminal study by Schoendorf and colleagues2 demonstrated that the death rates of babies born to educated African American parents were higher due to lower birth weights. Concern recently has been amplified, and many lay publications have publicly raised the alarm.3 Several states have started investigating the causes, and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, as well as other organizations, are studying possible solutions.
With nearly 50% of US births financed by Medicaid,5 there was great hope that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and expansion of Medicaid would result in improved access and quality of health care for underserved patients; however, it has become apparent that coverage did not confer improved access to quality care, especially for medical specialties.
Urban and rural poor populations generally seek medical services from safety net clinics staffed by midlevel and physician primary care providers whose tight schedules, documentation demands, and low reimbursement rates are coupled with complex medical and socioeconomic patient populations. While these providers may be skilled in basic primary care, their patients often present with conditions outside their scope of practice. Our country’s growing physician shortage, along with patient location and personal logistics, adds to the challenges for patients and providers alike. And who among us is not asked several times a week, even by our well-insured patients, for a primary care or specialist physician recommendation? The barriers for seeking medical care in rural populations are even greater, as local hospitals and clinics are closing at an alarming rate.
Alumni at work
Communities of physicians across the country recognize both the access problem and the potential to create solutions. Organizations such as Project ECHO, launched in 2003 through the University of New Mexico, connect rural providers with university physicians to aid in treatment of hepatitis C and other illnesses.
As the date for implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act approached, a group of medical school alumni leaders recognized that we could come together and offer our services to address growing health care disparities. Galvanized by the challenge, the Medical Alumni Volunteer Expert Network, or MAVEN Project, was, in our parlance, “born.”
While the concept of the MAVEN Project was germinating, we interviewed numerous colleagues for advice and input and were struck by their desire—especially among the newly retired—to continue to give back. Medicine is a calling, not just a job, and for many of us the joy of helping—the exhilaration of that first birth that sold us on our specialty—gives us meaning and purpose. Many physicians who had left full-time clinical medicine missed the collegiality of the “doctors’ lounge.” Throughout our careers, we are part of a cohort: our medical school class, our residency partners, our hospital staff—we all crave community. With 36% of US physicians older than age 55 and 240,000 retired doctors in the country, we realized a motivated, previously untapped workforce could be marshaled to form a community to serve the most vulnerable among us.5
At the same time, telemedicine had come into its own. Simple technology could enable us to see each other on smartphones and computers and even perform portions of a physical examination from afar.
We realized we could marry opportunity (the workforce), need (underserved populations across the country), and technology. The Harvard Medical School Center Primary Care supported a feasibility study, and the MAVEN Project began “seeing” patients in 2016.
What happens when a safety net clinic receives a donation of life-altering oral diabetes medications but their providers lack the expertise to use them appropriately? A closet full of drugs. That is what the MAVEN Project discovered at one of our partner clinics. Enter our volunteer endocrinologist. She consulted with the medical team, reviewed how each medication should be prescribed and monitored, and gave instructions on which patients with diabetes would benefit the most from them.
The closet is emptying, the clinic providers are confidently prescribing the newest therapies, and patients are enjoying improved blood sugars and quality of life!
A model of hope
The MAVEN Project matches physician volunteers with safety net clinics serving patients in need and provides malpractice insurance and a Health Information Portability and Accountability Act–compliant technology platform to facilitate remote communication. Our volunteers mentor and educate primary care providers in the field and offer both immediate and asynchronous advisory consults. Clinic providers can group cases for discussion, ask urgent questions, or receive advice and support for the day-to-day challenges facing clinicians today. Clinics choose educational topics, focusing on tools needed for patient care rather than esoteric mechanisms of disease. Patients receive best-in-class care conveniently and locally, and by making volunteering easy, we build partnerships that augment patient and provider satisfaction, support long-term capacity building, and improve service delivery.
Our volunteer physicians now represent more than 30 medical specialties and 25 medical schools, and we have completed more than 2,000 consultations to date. Our clinics are located in 6 states (California, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, South Dakota, and Washington), and thanks to our model, physician state of licensure is not an impediment to volunteering. Several colleagues in our specialty are providing advice in women’s health.
Driving innovative solutions
Elizabeth Kopin, MD, an ObGyn who practiced for 28 years in Worcester, Massachusetts, and volunteers for the MAVEN Project, eloquently described in correspondence with Project coordinators the spirit that embodies the pursuit of medicine and the organization’s mission. As Dr. Kopin stated, “The driving force behind my entering medicine was to help people in an essential and meaningful way. I was especially driven to participate in the care of women. I wanted to gain knowledge and skills to help women with health care throughout their lives.”
Dr. Kopin’s capacity to care for patients in the clinic and hospital was progressively reduced as her multiple sclerosis advanced. As a result, she retired from clinical practice, but her desire to participate and contribute to medicine with the passion with which she entered it remained.
Her father was an internist who started a charitable clinic in Georgia. Like her father, Dr. Kopin began her medical career in academic medicine. Her father felt that his last 15 years in medicine were the most meaningful of his career because of his work with underserved populations. Dr. Kopin is following in his footsteps. For her, “Looking for a telehealth vehicle helping communities in need gives me the opportunity to use my abilities in the best way possible.” Dr. Kopin also stated, “Helping the underserved was something I wanted to devote my time to and The MAVEN Project has given me that possibility.”
We like to think of ourselves as Match. com meets the Peace Corps, with the goal to reach underserved patients in all 50 states in both rural and urban communities. We ask for as little as 4 hours of your time per month, and all you need is a computer or smartphone and a medical license. We welcome volunteers in active or part-time practice, academics, and industry: your years of wisdom are invaluable.
The vast complexities of the US health care system are by no measure easy to address, but standing by and allowing a fractured system to rupture is not an option. Each of us has an expertise and an opportunity to make incremental steps to ensure that those who need health care do not slip through the cracks. Dr. Kopin and I are fortunate to have a skill to help others and, in the MAVEN Project, a robust, dedicated network of individuals who share our vision.
There are many who have and continue to inspire a guiding conscience to serve beyond oneself. George H.W. Bush said it best when explaining why he founded the Points of Light organization nearly 3 decades ago6:
I have pursued life itself over many years now and with varying degrees of happiness. Some of my happiness still comes from trying to be in my own small way a true “point of light.” I believe I was right when I said, as President, there can be no definition of a successful life that does not include service to others. So I do that now, and I gain happiness. I do not seek a Pulitzer Prize. I do not want press attention…. I have found happiness. I no longer pursue it, for it is mine.
Please join us on our mission!
How to join
We are actively seeking specialty and primary care physicians to provide advisory consultations, mentorship, and education via telehealth technology. We welcome physician volunteers who:
- are newly retired, semi-retired, in industry, or in clinical practice
- have a minimum of 2 years of clinical practice experience
- have been active in the medical community in the past 3 years
- have an active or volunteer US medical license (any state)
- are able to provide 3 professional references
- are willing to commit a minimum of 4 hours per month for 6 months.
Visit us online to complete our physician volunteer inquiry form (https://www.mavenproject.org/work-with-us/#wwu-volunteer-as-a-physician-lightblue).
Share your thoughts! Send your Letter to the Editor to rbarbieri@mdedge.com. Please include your name and the city and state in which you practice.
Practicing in the field of obstetrics and gynecology affords us a special privilege: we are part of the most important and unforgettable events in our patients’ lives, both in sickness and in health. Along with the great joys we share comes profound responsibility and the recognition that we are only as effective as the team with whom we work. Although we live in a country that is home to some of the best health care systems in the world, the maternal mortality rates and disease burden among women in underserved communities belie this fact. A University of Washington study demonstrated a more than 20-year gap in life expectancy between wealthy and poor communities in the United States from 1980 to 2014.1 Not surprisingly, access to medical care was a contributing factor.
Poverty only partly explains this disparity. Racial differences are at play as well. In 1992, a seminal study by Schoendorf and colleagues2 demonstrated that the death rates of babies born to educated African American parents were higher due to lower birth weights. Concern recently has been amplified, and many lay publications have publicly raised the alarm.3 Several states have started investigating the causes, and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, as well as other organizations, are studying possible solutions.
With nearly 50% of US births financed by Medicaid,5 there was great hope that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and expansion of Medicaid would result in improved access and quality of health care for underserved patients; however, it has become apparent that coverage did not confer improved access to quality care, especially for medical specialties.
Urban and rural poor populations generally seek medical services from safety net clinics staffed by midlevel and physician primary care providers whose tight schedules, documentation demands, and low reimbursement rates are coupled with complex medical and socioeconomic patient populations. While these providers may be skilled in basic primary care, their patients often present with conditions outside their scope of practice. Our country’s growing physician shortage, along with patient location and personal logistics, adds to the challenges for patients and providers alike. And who among us is not asked several times a week, even by our well-insured patients, for a primary care or specialist physician recommendation? The barriers for seeking medical care in rural populations are even greater, as local hospitals and clinics are closing at an alarming rate.
Alumni at work
Communities of physicians across the country recognize both the access problem and the potential to create solutions. Organizations such as Project ECHO, launched in 2003 through the University of New Mexico, connect rural providers with university physicians to aid in treatment of hepatitis C and other illnesses.
As the date for implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act approached, a group of medical school alumni leaders recognized that we could come together and offer our services to address growing health care disparities. Galvanized by the challenge, the Medical Alumni Volunteer Expert Network, or MAVEN Project, was, in our parlance, “born.”
While the concept of the MAVEN Project was germinating, we interviewed numerous colleagues for advice and input and were struck by their desire—especially among the newly retired—to continue to give back. Medicine is a calling, not just a job, and for many of us the joy of helping—the exhilaration of that first birth that sold us on our specialty—gives us meaning and purpose. Many physicians who had left full-time clinical medicine missed the collegiality of the “doctors’ lounge.” Throughout our careers, we are part of a cohort: our medical school class, our residency partners, our hospital staff—we all crave community. With 36% of US physicians older than age 55 and 240,000 retired doctors in the country, we realized a motivated, previously untapped workforce could be marshaled to form a community to serve the most vulnerable among us.5
At the same time, telemedicine had come into its own. Simple technology could enable us to see each other on smartphones and computers and even perform portions of a physical examination from afar.
We realized we could marry opportunity (the workforce), need (underserved populations across the country), and technology. The Harvard Medical School Center Primary Care supported a feasibility study, and the MAVEN Project began “seeing” patients in 2016.
What happens when a safety net clinic receives a donation of life-altering oral diabetes medications but their providers lack the expertise to use them appropriately? A closet full of drugs. That is what the MAVEN Project discovered at one of our partner clinics. Enter our volunteer endocrinologist. She consulted with the medical team, reviewed how each medication should be prescribed and monitored, and gave instructions on which patients with diabetes would benefit the most from them.
The closet is emptying, the clinic providers are confidently prescribing the newest therapies, and patients are enjoying improved blood sugars and quality of life!
A model of hope
The MAVEN Project matches physician volunteers with safety net clinics serving patients in need and provides malpractice insurance and a Health Information Portability and Accountability Act–compliant technology platform to facilitate remote communication. Our volunteers mentor and educate primary care providers in the field and offer both immediate and asynchronous advisory consults. Clinic providers can group cases for discussion, ask urgent questions, or receive advice and support for the day-to-day challenges facing clinicians today. Clinics choose educational topics, focusing on tools needed for patient care rather than esoteric mechanisms of disease. Patients receive best-in-class care conveniently and locally, and by making volunteering easy, we build partnerships that augment patient and provider satisfaction, support long-term capacity building, and improve service delivery.
Our volunteer physicians now represent more than 30 medical specialties and 25 medical schools, and we have completed more than 2,000 consultations to date. Our clinics are located in 6 states (California, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, South Dakota, and Washington), and thanks to our model, physician state of licensure is not an impediment to volunteering. Several colleagues in our specialty are providing advice in women’s health.
Driving innovative solutions
Elizabeth Kopin, MD, an ObGyn who practiced for 28 years in Worcester, Massachusetts, and volunteers for the MAVEN Project, eloquently described in correspondence with Project coordinators the spirit that embodies the pursuit of medicine and the organization’s mission. As Dr. Kopin stated, “The driving force behind my entering medicine was to help people in an essential and meaningful way. I was especially driven to participate in the care of women. I wanted to gain knowledge and skills to help women with health care throughout their lives.”
Dr. Kopin’s capacity to care for patients in the clinic and hospital was progressively reduced as her multiple sclerosis advanced. As a result, she retired from clinical practice, but her desire to participate and contribute to medicine with the passion with which she entered it remained.
Her father was an internist who started a charitable clinic in Georgia. Like her father, Dr. Kopin began her medical career in academic medicine. Her father felt that his last 15 years in medicine were the most meaningful of his career because of his work with underserved populations. Dr. Kopin is following in his footsteps. For her, “Looking for a telehealth vehicle helping communities in need gives me the opportunity to use my abilities in the best way possible.” Dr. Kopin also stated, “Helping the underserved was something I wanted to devote my time to and The MAVEN Project has given me that possibility.”
We like to think of ourselves as Match. com meets the Peace Corps, with the goal to reach underserved patients in all 50 states in both rural and urban communities. We ask for as little as 4 hours of your time per month, and all you need is a computer or smartphone and a medical license. We welcome volunteers in active or part-time practice, academics, and industry: your years of wisdom are invaluable.
The vast complexities of the US health care system are by no measure easy to address, but standing by and allowing a fractured system to rupture is not an option. Each of us has an expertise and an opportunity to make incremental steps to ensure that those who need health care do not slip through the cracks. Dr. Kopin and I are fortunate to have a skill to help others and, in the MAVEN Project, a robust, dedicated network of individuals who share our vision.
There are many who have and continue to inspire a guiding conscience to serve beyond oneself. George H.W. Bush said it best when explaining why he founded the Points of Light organization nearly 3 decades ago6:
I have pursued life itself over many years now and with varying degrees of happiness. Some of my happiness still comes from trying to be in my own small way a true “point of light.” I believe I was right when I said, as President, there can be no definition of a successful life that does not include service to others. So I do that now, and I gain happiness. I do not seek a Pulitzer Prize. I do not want press attention…. I have found happiness. I no longer pursue it, for it is mine.
Please join us on our mission!
How to join
We are actively seeking specialty and primary care physicians to provide advisory consultations, mentorship, and education via telehealth technology. We welcome physician volunteers who:
- are newly retired, semi-retired, in industry, or in clinical practice
- have a minimum of 2 years of clinical practice experience
- have been active in the medical community in the past 3 years
- have an active or volunteer US medical license (any state)
- are able to provide 3 professional references
- are willing to commit a minimum of 4 hours per month for 6 months.
Visit us online to complete our physician volunteer inquiry form (https://www.mavenproject.org/work-with-us/#wwu-volunteer-as-a-physician-lightblue).
Share your thoughts! Send your Letter to the Editor to rbarbieri@mdedge.com. Please include your name and the city and state in which you practice.
- Dwyer-Lindgren L, Bertozzi-Villa A, Stubbs RW, et al. Inequalities in life expectancy among US counties, 1980 to 2014: temporal trends and key drivers. JAMA Intern Med. 2017;177:1003-1011.
- Schoendorf KC, Hogue CJ, Kleinman JC, et al. Mortality among infants of black as compared with white college-educated parents. N Engl J Med. 1992;326:1522-1526.
- Villarosa L. Why America's black mothers and babies are in a life-or-death crisis. New York Times. April 11, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/11/magazine/black-mothers-babies-death-maternal-mortality.html. Accessed August 14, 2018.
- Smith VK, Gifford K, Ellis E, et al; The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation; The National Association of Medical Directors. Implementing coverage and payment initiatives: results from a 50-state Medicaid budget survey for state fiscal years 2016 and 2017. http://files.kff.org/attachment/Report-Implementing-Coverage-and-Payment-Initiatives. Published October 2006. Accessed August 14, 2018.
- Association of American Medical Colleges. 2016 Physician Specialty Data Report: Executive Summary. https://www.aamc.org/download/471786/data/2016physicianspecialtydatareportexecutivesummary.pdf. Accessed August 23, 2018.
- Miller RW. Jenna Bush Hager shares George H.W. Bush 'point of light' letter after Trump jab. USA TODAY. July 7, 2018. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/07/07/jenna-bush-hager-shares-george-h-w-bush-point-light-letter-donald-trump/765248002/. Accessed August 14, 2018.
- Dwyer-Lindgren L, Bertozzi-Villa A, Stubbs RW, et al. Inequalities in life expectancy among US counties, 1980 to 2014: temporal trends and key drivers. JAMA Intern Med. 2017;177:1003-1011.
- Schoendorf KC, Hogue CJ, Kleinman JC, et al. Mortality among infants of black as compared with white college-educated parents. N Engl J Med. 1992;326:1522-1526.
- Villarosa L. Why America's black mothers and babies are in a life-or-death crisis. New York Times. April 11, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/11/magazine/black-mothers-babies-death-maternal-mortality.html. Accessed August 14, 2018.
- Smith VK, Gifford K, Ellis E, et al; The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation; The National Association of Medical Directors. Implementing coverage and payment initiatives: results from a 50-state Medicaid budget survey for state fiscal years 2016 and 2017. http://files.kff.org/attachment/Report-Implementing-Coverage-and-Payment-Initiatives. Published October 2006. Accessed August 14, 2018.
- Association of American Medical Colleges. 2016 Physician Specialty Data Report: Executive Summary. https://www.aamc.org/download/471786/data/2016physicianspecialtydatareportexecutivesummary.pdf. Accessed August 23, 2018.
- Miller RW. Jenna Bush Hager shares George H.W. Bush 'point of light' letter after Trump jab. USA TODAY. July 7, 2018. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/07/07/jenna-bush-hager-shares-george-h-w-bush-point-light-letter-donald-trump/765248002/. Accessed August 14, 2018.
