Welcome to Under Served Care!

he Under Served Care (USC) Department is dedicated to the Mission of the College to provide medical education and research that will prepare globally minded, community-focused physicians and to improve the health of those most in need. The USC experience under Dr. Linda Frasca begins in the second year with the Appalachian Medical Mission (AMM) Early Clinical Experience (ECE) on Fridays.

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.

This Early Clinical Experience is presented as a traveling Mini-Med School for high school freshmen in southwest Virginia. Each Friday ten different second year medical students travel with Dr. Linda Frasca to a different high school 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. 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 at 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 department’s goal is to foster a passion for Primary Care, Underserved Care and to encourage students to practice in an Appalachian under served community!