Volunteer doctors help fill care gap
Maven Project enlists network of physicians
Dr. Gary Herzberg doesn’t think of himself as retired, although he gave up his medical practice in Sebastopol seven years ago and recently left a position with a health insurance company. At 68, the longtime family doctor still maintains his license to practice in 13 states and is itching to continue doing what he loves.
“I have my interests, but the point is many of us … still have the skills and expertise and enjoy the practice of medicine,” Herzberg said.
It is Herzberg and medical professionals like him that a San Francisco physician named Laurie Green had in mind when she conceived and co-founded the Maven Project. Her goal was to harness the energy and talent of volunteer physicians, particularly those who are retired, to help solve some of health care’s most vexing issues: the lack of access to both primary and specialty medical care in under-served areas and a growing need for health services, spurred in part by having more people covered under the federal health law.
“We’re hoping we can create a community to try to replace what you lose when you step back from practice or academia,” said Green, a gynecologist.
The Maven Project is an acronym for the aptly named Medical Alumni Volunteer Expert Network. It relies on medical school alumni groups to recruit a national network of experts to lend their expertise, using telemedicine technology, to doctors and their patients in remote areas of the nation that lack that expert knowledge. Essentially, the technology would put these experts into the room.
For more information about the Maven Project: http://mavenproject.org. Physicians interested in volunteering can e-mail forphysicians@mavenproject.org.