VCOM 2023 Annual Report

S ince each of our campuses opened, participating in community outreach has been a vital part of VCOM’s overall mission to provide medical care to the underserved and improve health, which is why there are dozens of examples each year of our students engaging in community service activities, from health fairs to food drives, elementary school programs and visits to senior living communities. Here are just a few examples from each of our campuses this past year. Living the VCOM Mission

VCOM-Virginia Outreach Highlights 2023-2024 • VCOM-Virginia’s Preventative Medicine students visited the annual Heritage Day Festival in Rural Retreat, Virginia and collected more than 100 surveys about vaccinations and healthcare access. They found that negative opinion due to misinformation was the biggest barrier to vaccination status among residents, reinforcing the importance of trust and open communication in their future practice as physicians. • Health fairs were held in Franklin and Giles counties where physicians from VCOM, Carilion and Lewis Gale supervised VCOM-Virginia students as they offered osteopathic manipulation, blood pressure checks, skin cancer screenings, pharmacy information and guidance, women’s health education and more. • More than 1,747 pounds of food was collected for the Agape Center NRV food bank by our Student Association of Military Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons (SAMOPS). • Our Summer Enrichment Experience (SEE) offered two weeklong camps—at no charge—to introduce science and healthcare professions to Virginia high school students, as we know that the best way to improve health outcomes for underserved areas is to recruit future physicians from those areas. • Our chapter of American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians (ACOFP) recently collaborated with our local Habitat for Humanity to build homes for families in Roanoke, Virginia.

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