2006 Outstanding Community Service Award

West Virginia University School of Medicine

The Outstanding Community Service Award was established in 1993 to spotlight member institutions with a longstanding, major institutional commitment to addressing community needs. The award recognizes exceptional programs that go well beyond the traditional role of academic medicine and reach communities whose needs are not being met through the traditional health care delivery system.

Because community service is part of its social contract with state citizens, the West Virginia University (WVU) School of Medicine is changing the Mountain State's health care destiny. Over the past 15 years, WVU School of Medicine's integrated, interdisciplinary network of educational, community outreach and clinical care programs has significantly boosted physician recruitment and retention in this predominantly rural state, and provided preventive care services that address West Virginia's most urgent public health problems.

At the heart of the school's statewide activities are the state-funded Rural Health Education Partnerships (RHEP) and the Area Health Education Centers, a family of initiatives designed to increase the number of health professionals practicing in rural areas. RHEP's requirement that community members comprise at least 51 percent of its statewide boards is in keeping with WVU's philosophy that community ownership and shared decision-making are keys to success.

Through the Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA), a 12-year old pipeline program to increase the number of health care professionals from underrepresented groups, WVU has been reaching out to high school students in the Appalachian region by bringing them to the medical school campus every summer for clinic, laboratory, and classroom activities. Today, 95 percent of HSTA graduates enter college (compared to 56 percent of West Virginia high school students overall), with more than half electing health sciences or technology majors.

To improve the health status of West Virginians, WVU has implemented several disease prevention and health promotion activities. One program that has produced tangible benefits is Not on Tobacco (N-O-T), a 10-year-long teenage smoking cessation initiative. Since the implementation of this program, the percentage of teenage smokers in the state has dropped from 43 percent to 27 percent. As a result, the program has been adopted by the American Lung Association and reached more than 100,000 teenagers in 48 states.

Another WVU initiative targeting young West Virginians is the CARDIAC (Coronary Artery Risk Detection in Appalachian Communities) program. Since 1998, CARDIAC has screened more than 30,000 children for dyslipidemia and other cardiac risk factors, an important service in a state with the nation's second highest incidence of cardiovascular disease.

Closer to campus, the school has recently begun reaching out to the growing homeless population in the community of Morgantown through the Multidisciplinary Unsheltered Homeless Relief Outreach of Morgantown ("MUSHROOM"). Since 2005, this program has provided basic social, nutritional, and medical outreach to Morgantown's homeless population, coordinating care for an average of 40 people monthly.

All of these community service initiatives play a significant role in the health of West Virginia, a state with a median household income of just over $31,000 and an unemployment rate of nearly seven percent. As John Prescott, M.D., dean of the WVU School of Medicine observes, West Virginia's unique economic and health status means that the school must go "well beyond the traditional service role of academic medicine and reach into Appalachian communities whose needs are not being met by the traditional health care system."

"We require all of our students to perform at least 100 hours of community service work before graduation. But many of them do far, far, more," Dr. Prescott said. "Their enthusiasm is a reflection of the commitment of the institution and the faculty to improving the health of our state."

Nominate your institution for the Outstanding Community Service Award, and view a list of previous award recipients.