Welcome to the Under Served Care Website!
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Second year students, Ashley Lubecki and Michael Lokale, teach two freshmen from Narrows High School how smoking affects the heart, using a human heart, with a pacemaker from the VCOM anatomy lab. |
The Under Served Care (USC) Website is dedicated to the Mission of the College to prepare Osteopathic Primary Care Physicians for the rural and medically underserved areas of Virginia, North Carolina and the Appalachian Region. The USC experience under Dr. Linda Frasca begins in the second year with the Appalachian Medical Mission (AMM) Early Clinical Experience (ECE) on Fridays. Currently, two AMM experiences take place: Mini-Med Schools for high school freshmen in southwest Virginia, where second year medical students travel to the schools to teach high school freshmen the true anatomical and physiological effects of: drugs, alcohol, smoking, STD's, hepatitis, cervical cancer and HIV. VCOM students have the opportunity to introduce Appalachia to health science.
The second AMM Early Clinical Experience is under the direction of Dr. Cacioppo and provides health screenings in rural southwest Virginia. VCOM students gather patient histories and provide health screenings and preventative health recommendations.
In other ECE experiences students have opportunities to participate in the local Free Clinics and Health Screenings which is a tremendous help to the local communities. In the third year VCOM students have a Clinical Rotation in Medically Underserved sites in primary care. Students experience the clinical practice of a rural physician from office based practice to Emergency Call, hospitalized patients and nursing homes. The one month rotation in the third year may be completed in the Appalachian Region or at one of the school's three international sites.
The information on this Website is similar to the Family Medicine Website however; this site has an emphasis on the medically underserved areas. The faculty physicians that teach in this rotation are dedicated to the mission of primary underserved care. They are mentors for our students and often go on international mission trips.
The department's goal is to foster a passion for Primary Care, Under Served Care and to encourage students to practice in an Appalachian under served community! | 
