Gail Farnsworth French, Training Program Manager at QVCDC, served as the Community Faculty for the clerkship, while Dr. David Maguire, Chief Medical Officer of Baystate's Eastern Region, served as Medical Faculty. In structuring the clerkship, they sought to offer students both a high-level view of the issues, as well as access to firsthand accounts. Students began by attending a meeting of the hospital's Community Benefits Advisory Committee, which uses the community health needs assessment to determine how the hospital will support community initiatives addressing social determinants of health. Students also toured two hospitals, met with hospital leadership, and shadowed pediatricians - all the while focusing on the link between transportation and patient health. Students next went into the community for an introduction to QVCDC. They rode the Connector, spoke with riders about their lives, and met with the drivers. They also met with staff and clients at a local food pantry, the Ware Council on Aging, and a non-profit providing intensive in-home case management for at-risk families. "A key theme of the clerkship was that one primary role of a community doctor is to learn about and share what resources are available. It's right up there with medical advice," explains Farnsworth French. The clerkship also included a research component: students examined the potential for the Connector to pursue sustainability by adapting a microtransit approach.

 

In her final reflection, participating student Xu Wanlu emphasized the impact the experience had on her: "For the last couple weeks, this experience was all I could talk about. My medical school friends have mostly lived in cities, and the disparities we are used to are mostly among urban populations. I desperately wanted them to understand what I have learned during this clerkship, but unfortunately, I don't know if that would be possible until they also experience it for themselves or meet people from these communities. I went into the clerkship with the understanding that transportation has a huge effect on daily life, but having lived in or near a city my entire life, I had no comprehension of just how extreme the need for transportation was until I spent these last two weeks in the Quaboag Region. I had previously considered myself to be lacking in transportation access compared to most of my friends. Nevertheless, I was always able to eventually get to where I needed to go, even if I had to walk 20-30 minutes to get to a bus stop. Even if the bus was delayed, it would usually get there within 30 minutes. I always had the option of calling for an Uber as a last resort if I really needed to get somewhere on time. I never appreciated that safety net until I came here and talked with some of the passengers of the Quaboag Connector. Without the Connector, they literally had no other options. For one person, getting a ride from a friend was entirely dependent on whether that friend could keep their job or if they could remain healthy. Walking to work took roughly four hours and was really not an option for an older person, especially in the winter. And getting to work or buying food often took priority over medical appointments, of course. How can physicians work in a bubble and not have resources for getting their patients to them? Access to healthcare should be a human right, and transportation access should be included in the conversation along with health insurance coverage and drug prices."