Hey guys!
So, I haven't forgotten about you all. "Operation Don't Fail Medical School" has been taking up virtually all of my time lately, but today, the universe made me remember you!
First I'll address the topic at hand: Project MUSHROOM isn't really intense enough to be a stand alone rotation but I do know that students doing away rotations at WVU, especially in the department of family medicine have worked with MUSHROOM in the past. I can get some more information about that and add it to the data base. Also, what if we collaborated with Operation Safety Net, inviting their rotating students to experience "small-town" street rounds since Morgantown is only about an hour away? What you do think Will and Emma?
In the mean time, I have to share with you my amazing feet of dumb luck:
If I recall correctly, our ultimate (dreamlike) goal of this student collaboration was to improve medical education in regard to care of the homeless by researching, developing, and implementing educational program. Well, great news, we get to skip steps 1 and 2!
Imagine my surprise when my random Google search for "pitting keratolysis" gives me "delivering health care to the homeless," an online "homeless curriculum produced with the collaboration of Ottawa InnerCity Health Project and Ottawa University. This curriculum is intended for the students in medicine but is accessible to learners of all levels."
You guys have to go check it out:
http://www.med.uottawa.ca/homeless/main_e.html.It's extremely well researched, with a huge bibliography. It has separate modules to cover each topic of alcoholism, drug abuse, internal medicine, women, youth, trauma, mental health, dermatology, and international comparisons and 4 specialties under internal! Each module come complete with an introduction, case study, quiz, and references. These people didn't invent the wheel...they inverted the model T!
I haven't gone through all of the modules, but the program as a whole seems to be very generalized and applicable to any street medicine setting, at least in the U.S. and Europe. I have already e-mailed the program director to get some more information about how they use it, if they've evaluated it, if they have ever shared it, etc. I'll let you guys know when I hear back from him.
You might also want to check out their clinic/respite
www.ottawainnercityhealth.ca. I haven't looked at the site too much, but I did notice that they offer rotations through the University of Ottowa. I can find out more info about this and work on it for the data base when things slow down a bit.