VCOM 2023 Annual Report

Community Outreach

I t’s not surprising that a medical college like VCOM, with its mission to improve health in underserved communities, spends a lot of time partnering with organizations to provide health care while simultaneously giving students hands-on learning experiences. Some of the College’s very earliest community outreach activities involved supporting those who had been affected by natural disasters. In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the gulf coast, devastating the area around New Orleans. VCOM students and faculty, under the direct oversight of Dixie Tooke-Rawlins, DO—who was then the dean of the College—headed to Mississippi and provided care for three weeks in the aftermath of the hurricane. In 2007, the Blacksburg community, home to VCOM-Virginia, was devastated by the shooting at the Virginia Tech campus, and the VCOM family jumped into action. Its emergency medicine faculty members, as well as students on clinical rotations, provided care to the injured, assistance in the coroner’s office and grief counseling. Students gathered food for families of the victims and attended vigils.

In March 2008, members of the VCOM community went to Missouri after massive flooding impacted the area. The team helped in the cleanup and provided preventative medical care. They also provided financial help to those who lost their possessions and needed to obtain the basics of life such as food and water. A month later, students and faculty associated with VCOM’s Association of Military Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons (AMOPS) student organization provided assistance to victims after an EF-3 tornado struck Suffolk, Virginia. In March 2019, faculty, staff and students at VCOM-Auburn got to work providing food, water, first-aid, clothing and shelter to those impacted by an EF-4 tornado that hit Lee County, Alabama. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the College supported vaccine clinics near all of its campuses. In fact, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) presented VCOM-Carolinas with an award for its efforts to vaccinate the community, which included sending the College’s Mobile Medical Unit (MMU) into underserved neighborhoods. The College also donated a variety of medical PPE to local hospitals.

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