Founded | December 27, 2005 |
---|---|
Founder | Neilesh Patel DDS and Elliot Mendelsohn MD |
Type | 501(c)(3) |
Focus | Healthcare |
Region | GLOBAL |
Members | Over 2+ million people served with 7.2 million volunteer hours |
CEO | Patrick R. Callico |
Key people | Dr. Neilesh Patel (Founder & Board Member) Patrick R. Callico (Chief Executive Officer) Ravi Raghavan (Chief Operating Officer) |
Employees | 58 volunteers/employees [1] |
Volunteers | Over 300,000 website users |
Website | www.healthcarevolunteer.com |
HealthCareVolunteer.com is a non-profit organization that connects volunteers with a health-related volunteering opportunity. [2] [3] The organization provides medical, dental, and surgical services to needy patients and impoverished people worldwide, through indirect and direct patient-care programs. [4] [5]
The company also provides a social networking application that allows health volunteers to connect and create new volunteer teams. The organization has matched over 290,000 volunteers to nearly 3,300 organizations worldwide. [3] In total, over 1.5 million patients have received health care as a result of its indirect and direct patient care programs.
In 2005, during his first year at UCLA Dental School, Patel decided to travel to Brazil to provide dental services to underserved communities. However, he encountered difficulties in finding volunteer opportunities, having contacted more than 15 Brazilian organizations and receiving no response. He found that other dental and medical students had experienced similar problems. To address this problem, Patel created the Dental Volunteer and later HealthCare Volunteer to help connect students with volunteer opportunities. [6]
During Dental school, Neilesh Patel said he spent many "pizza nights" – subsisting on pizza and pulling all-nighters teaching himself how to program and build a Web site, which became the backbone of HealthCare Volunteer. He said he was driven by the belief that all qualified applicants should have the opportunity to volunteer. Soon, now-orthopedic surgeon Elliot Mendelssohn, also a biomedical engineering major in his undergraduate days, joined Patel to help build HealthCare Volunteer. [7]
Founded by Neilesh Patel DDS and Elliot Mendelsohn MD in November 2005, HealthCare Volunteer has a large listing of health-related volunteering opportunities serving the non-profit sector. [3] Volunteers include physicians, dentists, medical students, and dental assistants, who donate their time to provide services, including free surgery and dental care. [3] The organization has direct patient care programs in over 10 countries, including India, Ecuador, Kenya, Tanzania, Liberia, Cameroon, and Paraguay.
In 2007, Patel was selected as a YouthActionNet Fellow in recognition of the organization's efforts, which was awarded at the Embassy of Finland in Washington DC. [8] [9] In 2008, Patel was awarded the UCLA Charles E Young Humanitarian Award for his work in global health. Patel reportedly dropped out of the UCLA MBA Program in 2007 after starting classes in his first quarter as the first-ever student in the integrated DDS/MBA program to focus on HV's growth.[ citation needed ]
Patel and Mendelsohn have also established HealthCare Tourism International, the first non-profit medical tourism accreditation service. [10] Patel started his first non-profit StudentsHelp.org (www.studentshelp.org) at age 17, which helped provide computer services and technical support to needy people around the world.
In 2013, Patel received the Samuel S. Beard Award for Greatest Public Service by an Individual 35 Years or Under, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards. [11]
One of the unique features of the HealthCare Volunteer website is its ability to allow volunteers to create online profiles and connect with other volunteers. Once volunteers have signed up and created their profiles, they can form volunteering teams for service at home or abroad.[ citation needed ]
HealthCare Volunteer has sought to reduce the financial burdens for both volunteers and organizations. First, volunteers pay no money to search HealthCare Volunteer for volunteering opportunities nor must organizations pay any money to post their volunteering opportunities on HealthCare Volunteer. Secondly, HealthCare Volunteer strives to exclusively partner with organizations that do not charge their volunteers additional money beyond accommodation and other essential services to volunteer. HealthCare Volunteer believes that volunteers are already volunteering their time and effort, and should not be required to pay additional fees above the basic costs (travel, accommodation, and basic services). [12]
In 2007, HealthCare Volunteer began awarding volunteers who helped advance the mission of HealthCare Volunteer. [13]
2007 Awards:
Award | Recipient | Comments |
---|---|---|
Leadership | Ravi Raghavan | Awarded for exceptional leadership in fundraising, recruiting, public relations, and establishing new partnerships. |
Medical Field Excellence - Tanzania | Dr. Samuel Feinstein | Recognizes outstanding contributions to medical care, particularly in under-served areas. |
Dental Field Excellence - Tanzania | Dr. Jason Ehtessabian | Honors remarkable service in providing dental care to communities in need. |
Innovation Award | Dr. Tara Athan, PhD | Given for creative solutions enhancing healthcare volunteerism, such as new platforms or technologies. |
Opportunity Expansion Award - Tanzania | Erick Mlanga | Acknowledges efforts in creating new volunteering opportunities, expanding the organization's reach. |
Organizational Award | Carolina Myans | Awarded to individuals or teams significantly advancing the organization's mission through operational contributions. |
Student Volunteer Award | Colin Casault | Recognizes students who overcome challenges to provide volunteer healthcare services, exemplifying dedication and commitment. |
2008 Awards:
Award | Chapter | Recipient | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Leadership | INDIA | Ravi Raghavan | This award acknowledges the establishment of the India chapter of HealthCareVolunteer. |
Medical Field Excellence - Galapagos Islands | Dr. Seth Podolsky | For public health medical work in Galapagos Islands | |
Dental Field Excellence | Andi Michels | For dental work in Tanzania | |
Innovation Award | Adil Shafique | For world's first health-related NGO and volunteer interactive, online map | |
Opportunity Expansion Award | Catherine Matthys | For creating volunteering opportunities in Tanzania | |
Student Volunteer Award | Sarah Richardson | For overcoming numerous obstacles to perform volunteer work in rural Tanzania |
2023 Awards:
Award | Recipient | Comments |
---|---|---|
Leadership | Patrick R. Callico | With the launch of the Guatemala Chapter of HealthCareVolunteer.com and the establishment of a new team, we were able to bring aid and assistance to over 4,000 indigenous people. |
Medical tourism is the practice of traveling abroad to obtain medical treatment. In the past, this usually referred to those who traveled from less-developed countries to major medical centers in highly developed countries for treatment unavailable at home. However, in recent years it may equally refer to those from developed countries who travel to developing countries for lower-priced medical treatments. With differences between the medical agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the European Medicines Agency (EMA), etc., which decide whether a drug is approved in their country or region, or not, the motivation may be also for medical services unavailable or non-licensed in the home country.
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Dentistry throughout the world is practiced differently, and training in dentistry varies as well.
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St. Luke's Hospital is a community hospital in Singapore that provides professional healthcare services. It was named after the patron saint of the medical profession, St. Luke. St. Luke's Hospital for the Elderly Sick was registered as a voluntary welfare organization in the Registry of Societies in October 1991. It was renamed St. Luke's Hospital in September 2004 to signify the hospital's role as a community hospital while retaining its focus on geriatric care. The idea of setting up a community hospital was first mooted by a group of Christian doctors and nurses after a report from the Advisory Council on the Aged in 1988 raised important issues concerning the lack of adequate elderly care facilities in Singapore. A projection of the number of facilities and resources needed to provide adequate healthcare services to Singapore's aging population in 2030 revealed serious shortfalls. In response to the problem of inadequate healthcare facilities for the elderly, a group of 8 churches and Christian organizations including the Graduate Christian Fellowship and the Singapore Nurses' Christian Fellowship, came together to set up St. Luke's Hospital for the Elderly Sick. St. Luke's Hospital is headed by a board of directors and various committees that oversee the daily operations of the hospital.
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Homeless Not Toothless (HNT), founded by Dr. Jay Grossman in 1992, is a non-profit organization of dentists who volunteer their time and who either pay for laboratory expenses or work with labs who donate dental work. Homeless Not Toothless is committed to encouraging the health, care, and support for as many foster children as possible to have their dental needs met through a well-structured community of doctors and dentists. The organization received many of its patients through referrals by the Venice Family Clinic as well as local outreach programs. Now, referrals mostly come from the VA, local shelters and past clients/patients.
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Volunteering is an elective and free-choice act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor, often for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve on an as-needed basis, such as in response to a natural disaster.
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Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center is a non-profit organization that provides primary health care in Washington and Yamhill counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. Established in 1975, Virginia Garcia operates five medical clinics, five dental clinics, one women's clinic as well as six school-based health centers, and is based in Cornelius, Oregon. The organization was founded to provide medical care to migrant and farm workers and those with barriers to care. It was named after the daughter of migrant workers who died after failing to receive medical treatment for an infected cut on her foot. In 2016, Virginia Garcia had revenues of $60 million and served 45,000 patients.
Neilesh Patel is a social entrepreneur and American humanitarian who serves as Founder and CEO of HealthCare Volunteer, an online global health non-profit organization, and Healthsouk, a dental insurance alternative with no monthly fee. Patel won the 2013 Jefferson Awards for Public Service for Greatest Public Service by an Individual Under Age 35 in June 2013 for his service in facilitating healthcare to over 1 million people worldwide. The Jefferson Award's previous winners include Steve Jobs, Bobby Jindal, Peyton Manning and Lance Armstrong. He is also credited with starting Healthsouk, America's first free dental plan and is credited with being the inventor of real-time pricing for health services. He launched it in 2011 in response to the lack to dental coverage provided in the Affordable Care Act. Other companies were forced to follow suit on creating a free dental plan after HealthSouk started to disrupt the dental discount plan subscription model.
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