Maven Project founder connects retired doctors with clinics
“We want to be the organization that doctors go to when they’re retired or retiring, to be able to continue to make a contribution.” Dr. Laurie Green, founder of Maven Project
T he founder of San Francisco’s The Maven Project, which connects volunteer physicians with health clinics that serve patients needing specialized care, describes it as “Match.com meets the Peace Corps.”
“We want to be the organization that doctors go to when they’re retired or retiring, to be able to continue to make a contribution,” explained Dr. Laurie Green, 68, an obstetrician and gynecologist practicing at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. “We want to marshal this army of retired doctors.”
Green founded Maven in 2014, at a time when widespread doctor shortages, especially in certain specialties and in impoverished communities, were colliding with a large market of patients newly insured under the Affordable Care Act.
Now, with the act under attack and the number of uninsured people beginning to rise, the demand for expert care in atneed communities is even more acute, Green said.
At the core of Maven Project — short for Medical Alumni Volunteer Expert Network — is telemedicine technology, which enables doctors to consult face to face with physicians elsewhere. It’s not practical for volunteers to work directly with patients — they’d have to be licensed in every state where they consulted, even by video — but they can mentor doctors treating those patients.
“You’re connecting a depth of knowledge with places that don’t have access to it otherwise,” Lisa Levine, the organization’s CEO. “For the physicians, this is an opportunity to keep giving back.”
Green graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1972, completed a residency at UCSF and later started a practice, Pacific Women’s Obstetrics and Gynecology, with a colleague in Laurel Heights. In 2013, she was elected president of the Harvard Medical School Alumni Foundation.
As she met with former students, she was struck by how many were approaching retirement and not sure what was coming next. The most obvious volunteer opportunities for doctors are in organizations that work in developing countries, or in disaster-struck areas. But not every physician is willing or able to help under those circumstances.
The Maven Project now has more than 200 doctors, who have conducted 1,200 consultations. Volunteers must work at least four hours a month. They schedule appointments with doctors at clinics that work with Maven or are simply “on call” during specific hours. There are also broader, lecture-type meetings, when volunteers discuss their area of expertise.
Green and her team are working to establish routines they can scale to communities across the country. Maven is already in California, Massachusetts, Florida, New York and Washington.
Deborah Brigell, a Bostonarea endocrinologist who is scaling back work, has already done several consultations for Maven.
“Being a doctor has been a huge part of my identity,” she said. “This has helped me do some meaningful work with my free time.”