Lebanon was home to the second annual Rural Health Care Equity Fair, which was held Saturday, May 2, by students of the Western University of Health Science Lebanon campuses.
The event brings basic health screenings and other resources to an area that doesn’t see a lot of access to healthcare provision.
“The students really wanted to bring on a community event to provide healthcare for the community, which is something that the school has wanted to do for years and years, but it takes a lot of motivation and a lot of energy and a lot of time commitment,” said Western University’s Gina Miller, supervising physician for the students.
“The most important priority for us was ensuring that everything was provided for free today,” she said.
When Miller, herself, was a student at Oregon Health & Science University, she started a health fair in 2006, which is still ongoing for 18 years now. When Lebanon’s medical students learned about her efforts, they asked her to help them bring something similar to this community, she said.
It was medical student Tiffany Tran who really got the ball off the ground when she took on the task of forming the fair in Lebanon these past two years.
“It was a big ask,” she said. “We had never done this before, no one ever figured out where to put it, what to have.”
According to Tran, with a background in public and community health, as well as eight years of organizing health fairs, coming to Lebanon from southern California was a different experience.
“I was shocked that there were not a lot of resources for people living here to go and see (what I call) ‘gap’ healthcare,” Tran said.
Although she intends to specialize in family medicine, her ultimate goal is to help change how healthcare is structured in the U.S. Tran actually has a background in political science and biology, to start.
“I thought I wanted to go into law to change healthcare on the legal side,” she said. “But in shadowing a lot of lawyers, I realized that the change I want to see in healthcare cannot be done from a legal standpoint. It needs to be done as someone who has the knowledge but is also within the field to change it.”
And so she moves toward a medical career, starting with an education at COMP-NW in Lebanon.
This particular event in Lebanon marks the 57th health fair Tran has organized in her lifetime.
Still, there was a lot to learn by starting one from scratch in Lebanon, and the first one last year was not as well-attended as this year.
“I’m really ecstatic to see so many people turn out,” she said of this year.
The annual fair, held at The River Center, provided an opportunity for the public to receive free sports physicals for students, nutrition and exercise education, child development services, and screenings for general health, blood pressure, glucose and balance.
Also available was osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT), which is essentially manipulation of the body to help improve infection and muscle recovery.
Local community organizations, such as Family Tree Relief Nursery, Lebanon Mental Health Alliance, Samaritan Health, East Linn Community Clinic, Practical Application Labs and others also showed up to share their services.
Tran said it was important for her that, while the school gives a lot to the students, the students give a lot back to the community.
“This is an opportunity for us to say thanks for letting us be a part of your community,” Tran said.