Fellow Bio:
I am from Mukwonago, WI, but did my undergraduate at Denison University in Granville, OH where I was an English literature major. Some community service experience in Ohio included running a children's program at a transitional housing facility in Newark, Ohio, as well as organizing numerous peer educational activities about local and global hunger/homelessness issues.

I'm currently working on two different projects for the LOCUS program. The first, my summer project, is in collaboration with Meghan Pesko and Lux Hariharan and involves several services involving the uninsured patients at our MEDIC clinics. While Lux and Meghan will be focusing on strategies for educating medical students (possibly through MEDIC) about issues of uninsurance, my part of the project involves creating a series of handouts for students and patients about different forms of medical assistance, their eligibility requirements, and ways to become enrolled in the programs. Inputs for the project include advice from local health professionals and MEDIC council members, and my own personal research. Short term outcomes would include education of both students and patients as to different options for medical assistance that are available; long term outcomes might be increased utilization of medical assistance programs, resulting in improvements to individu al and community health, or an increased knowledge among health professionals about medical assistance might result in proposed changes to the current system.

My other project, for which I'm partnering with Branden Pfefferkorn, is the PharmFree Campaign. This is part of a larger national campaign launched two years ago by the American Medical Student Association (AMSA)--the PharmFree campaign is an initiative to educate medical students and physicians about the current practice of pharmaceutical marketing and its biases. We have addressed these issues through a series of talks and a pledge drive encouraging students not to accept gifts from drug reps as they become physicians. In the future, we hope to continue our educational programming and launch a counterdetailing campaign, in which medical students work with local physicians to encourage evidence-based, not marketing-based, prescribing practicies.

My project goals for the summer were to first research sources of medical assistance for Dane County residents and the enrollment processes for these programs. The next goal was to then compile the information I had gotten into a series of educational handouts for student workers at UWMS MEDIC clinics, as well as a separate series of handouts for patients at MEDIC clinics about medical assistance. The last goal of my project was to develop a screening or benefits counseling process to be available to our MEDIC patients, which would hopefully help people become aware of and begin accessing those programs for which they would be eligible.
My goals remain as stated previously and above.

Accomplishments:

The first part, researching medical assistance programs, was done mainly by my own personal research on the internet and by calling various help lines and community agencies (such as Health and Human Services) to determine exactly what medical assistance is available to uninsured persons, and where they should go to find out if they are eligible and how to apply. The rest of my project time was spent meeting with various professionals in the Madison community to ask about the logistics of screening MEDIC patients for medical assistance programs, as well as barriers to starting a benefits counseling program at the clinics. Bobby Peterson of ABC for Health was a valuable resource in this regard, as were Dr. Dick Anstett and Nancy Rodriguez of the Wingra Clinic as far as discussing the social work aspects of such an undertaking. In addition, I met with several other students on the MEDIC council, namely Ariel Chairez, Meghan Pesko, Luxme Hariharan, and Mike Curley, to discuss different strategies for patient screening and student education on these issues. At this point, the handouts for students at MEDIC clinics about the different forms of medical assistance are forthcoming.

For now, only the continued support of the LOCUS program and other students.

Last update:

September 6, 2005

A indicates the item has been completed.

Completed	When	What	On-line
	Year 1: Beginning of Semester 2	New Project Report	Submit Report
	Year 2: Beginning of Semester 1	Project Update	Submit Update
	Year 2: Beginning of Semester 2	Project Update	Submit Update
	Year 3: Beginning of third year	Project Update	Submit Update
	Year 4: August of fourth year	2-3 page final summary of project that includes a reflective evaluation of the project process	N/A
	Ongoing	Participate in program evaluation (written and/or focus group)	View Options
	By the end of fourth year	Select poster, presentation, paper, creative option or your own idea	View Options

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