Remedy at UCSF: A Student-Run Initiative to Responsibly Redistribute Medical Supplies

LB Muldoon, J Gould, J Mirsky, M Woods, S Frumm, S Jain, HK KanzariaUCSF School of Medicine, UCLA RWJ Clinical Scholars Program

Innovations in Medical Education

Background

• Hospitals produce 33 pounds of waste per patient per day

Brown and Miller, CleanMed 2011, Phoenix, April 2011

Background

• Founded by UCSF medical students in 2004

• Based on a program developed at Yale

• Over 70 students have participated in the program

Program Objectives

• Promote service-learning

• Reduce disparities

• Expose students to magnitude of waste

• Develop interdisciplinary partnerships

Procedures

In-hospital collection Supply retrieval by student volunteers

Supply sorting

Procedures

UCSF Trips

Third-party organizations

Matching supply and demand

Program Evaluation

• How much medical equipment is collected at UCSF?

• Where do the supplies go?

• Do the supplies match the needs of the recipient clinics?

• How does this program affect students?

Program Reach• Donated over 26,000 pounds of supplies

in the past four years

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Matching of Requested and Donated Supplies

Taught me about the extent of waste in the US healthcare system

Showed me that students can make a real-world difference in healthcare

Connected me with other students and healthcare providers with similar interests to me

Taught me about the extent of disparities in access to healthcare supplies

89%

70%

81%

93%

Service-Learning Impact

Impact on Career Decision-Making

Motivated me to pursue a career devoted to reducing health inequities

Motivated me to pursue a career devoted to reducing medical waste

Motivated me to pursue a career devoted to global health issues

My participation in Remedy…

74%

59%

53%

Challenges

• Scalability

• Ensure no waste in donated supplies

• Impact evaluation by recipient clinics

Future Directions

• Expansion to Kaiser Oakland Hospital

• Collaboration with other health professional schools

• Long-term partnerships

THANK YOU

Remedy at UCSF Volunteers

Dr. Sharad Jain, MD Faculty Mentor

Dr. Hemal Kanzaria, MD Founder

Connect with Remedy at UCSF

•Website: ucsf.orgsync.com/org/remedyatucsf•Twitter: twitter.com/RemedyAtUCSF•Email: RemedyUCSF@gmail.com