COMMUNITY Medical students serve community through monthly clinic at TOMAGWA
PROVIDING FOR COMMUNITY The Saturday clinic at TOMAGWA takes place monthly, with medical students and licensed doctors volunteering their time.
Medical student Eiline Cai, who recently began her nal year of med- ical school, said she has been volun- teering at the clinic since it started. “It’s one of those moments where you feel like going to med school is really worth it,” Cai said. During the four-hour clinic, the students see around four to eight patients, Cai said. “The really interesting thing about TOMAGWA that I think is a really good learning opportunity for students is that ... in a hospital, you can be a bit spoiled; you have all this access to imaging and lab work,” Cai said. “That’s not necessarily the case at TOMAGWA. You have to be very speci cally mindful of what kind of imaging and what kind of lab work and what kind of tests [patients] need because they’ll be charged for it.” Cai also said the students have plans to expand the clinic to two Saturdays a month. “What we need more is to recruit volunteer physicians who are willing to come in,” Cai said. “If we want to be able to do the things that we do ... there has to be a licensed physician.”
BY LIZZY SPANGLER
Conversations about the possibil- ity of a clinic began in 2020, when the rst class of medical students arrived to train at Houston Methodist Willowbrook, said Dr. Stephanie Bruce, assistant site dean at Houston Methodist Willowbrook for the Texas A&M University School of Medicine. “The other clinical sites for Texas A&M all have some sort of community clinic,” Bruce said. Delayed by the pandemic, it was the second class of medical students who recruited a volunteer physician to oversee their e orts and ultimately launched the clinic last fall. It is not a requirement to graduate. “This is on their free time to give back to the community and to be able to help the patients,” Bruce said. “Some of our best medical students are ones that choose to volunteer at TOMAGWA because it is just a great learning experience.”
Volunteer medical students are on track to serve dozens of people through a monthly Saturday clinic that provides primary care to patients at TOMAGWA HealthCare Ministries, a local health care nonpro t serving Tomball, Magnolia and Waller. The monthly clinic—a three-way partnership started last November among TOMAGWA, the Texas A&M University College of Medicine and Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital—gives students medical expe- rience while they treat patients under the guidance of a licensed doctor. “We were able to deliver this service, and it was not at a cost to TOMAGWA or the patient, and the patient had access to care,” TOMAGWA CEO Timika Simmons said. “So I nor- mally wouldn’t have been able to open up on that Saturday because of the amount it would have cost to open.”
4-8 patients served at each clinic
2 guiding physicians alternating oversight of clinics 1 Saturday a month from 8 a.m.-noon at 455 School St., Ste. 30, Tomball
GRAHAM DR.
SCHOOL ST.
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Treating issues such as:
abdominal and chest pains breast pain headaches rashes
SOURCES: HOUSTON METHODIST WILLOWBROOK HOSPITAL, TEXAS A&M SCHOOL OF MEDICINE COMMUNITY IMPACT
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