Teaching in the Field: The Model of a One-Day Trip to an Outreach Clinic

ABSTRACT

A trip to an outreach clinic in a 15-passenger van is presented as part of the answer to the forces negatively affecting the practice of academic medicine today. Any subspecialist in a medical center can use the model if a community can be identified that has a hospital or clinic building able to host the university group. County- or state-funded facilities are well suited to a periodic clinic, and public health nurses are well trained in their management. The Muscular Dystrophy Association is a private supporter of clinics like this, allowing specialty doctor visits close to home for patients with disabling weakness who might otherwise be excluded from our increasingly restricted health care system.

KEYWORD

Teaching - outpatient clinic model - medical care quality