HealthCare Volunteer
Encyclopedia
HealthCare Volunteer is a non-profit organization
that connects volunteers with a health-related volunteering opportunity. The organization provides medical, dental and surgical services to needy patients, and impoverished people worldwide, through indirect and direct patient-care programs. The company also provides a social networking application, that allows health volunteers to connect with each other and create new volunteer teams. The organization has matched over 281,000 volunteers to nearly 3,100 organizations worldwide. In total hundreds of thousands of patients have received health care as a result of its indirect and direct patient care programs.
Founded by Neilesh Patel DDS, and Elliot Mendelsohn MD in November, 2005, HealthCare Volunteer has a large listing of health-related volunteering opportunities serving the non-profit sector. Volunteers include physician
s, dentist
s, medical student
s, and dental assistant
s, who donate their time to provide services including free surgery and dental care. The organization has direct patient care programs in over 10 countries including India, Ecuador, Kenya, Tanzania, Liberia, Cameroon and Paraguay. In 2007, Patel was selected as a YouthActionNet Fellow in recognition of the organization's efforts, which was awarded at the Embassy of Finland in Washington DC. In 2008, Patel was awarded the UCLA Charles E Young Humanitarian Award for his work in global health. Patel reportedly dropped out of the UCLA MBA Program in 2007 after starting classes his first quarter as the first ever student in the integrated DDS/MBA program in order to focus on HV's growth.
Patel and Mendelsohn have also established HealthCare Tourism International, the first non profit medical tourism
accreditation
service. Patel started his first non-profit StudentsHelp.org (www.studentshelp.org) at age 17, which helped provide computer services and technical support to needy people around the world.
2007 Awards:
2008 Awards:
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
that connects volunteers with a health-related volunteering opportunity. The organization provides medical, dental and surgical services to needy patients, and impoverished people worldwide, through indirect and direct patient-care programs. The company also provides a social networking application, that allows health volunteers to connect with each other and create new volunteer teams. The organization has matched over 281,000 volunteers to nearly 3,100 organizations worldwide. In total hundreds of thousands of patients have received health care as a result of its indirect and direct patient care programs.
History
In 2005, during his first year at UCLA Dental School, Patel decided to travel to Brazil to provide dental services to underserved communities. But he encountered difficulties in finding volunteer opportunities, having contacted more than 15 Brazilian organizations and receiving no response. He found that other dental and medical students had experienced similar problems. To address this problem, Patel created the Dental Volunteer and later HealthCare Volunteer to help connect students with volunteer opportunities. During Dental school, Neilesh Patel said he spent many “pizza nights” – subsisting on pizza and pulling all-nighters teaching himself how to program and build a Web site, which became the backbone of HealthCare Volunteer. He said he was driven by the belief that all qualified applicants should have the opportunity to volunteer. Soon now-orthopedic surgeon Elliot Mendelosohn, also a biomedical engineering major in his undergraduate days, joined Patel to help build HealthCare Volunteer.Founded by Neilesh Patel DDS, and Elliot Mendelsohn MD in November, 2005, HealthCare Volunteer has a large listing of health-related volunteering opportunities serving the non-profit sector. Volunteers include physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
s, dentist
Dentist
A dentist, also known as a 'dental surgeon', is a doctor that specializes in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity. The dentist's supporting team aides in providing oral health services...
s, medical student
Medical Student
Medical Student may refer to:*Someone studying at medical school*Medical Student Newspaper, a UK publication...
s, and dental assistant
Dental assistant
Dental assistants assist the dental operator provide more efficient dental treatment, by preparing the patient for treatment, sterilizing instruments, passing instruments during the procedure, holding a suction device, exposing dental radiographs, taking impressions, and fabricating provisional...
s, who donate their time to provide services including free surgery and dental care. The organization has direct patient care programs in over 10 countries including India, Ecuador, Kenya, Tanzania, Liberia, Cameroon and Paraguay. In 2007, Patel was selected as a YouthActionNet Fellow in recognition of the organization's efforts, which was awarded at the Embassy of Finland in Washington DC. In 2008, Patel was awarded the UCLA Charles E Young Humanitarian Award for his work in global health. Patel reportedly dropped out of the UCLA MBA Program in 2007 after starting classes his first quarter as the first ever student in the integrated DDS/MBA program in order to focus on HV's growth.
Patel and Mendelsohn have also established HealthCare Tourism International, the first non profit medical tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
accreditation
Accreditation
Accreditation is a process in which certification of competency, authority, or credibility is presented.Organizations that issue credentials or certify third parties against official standards are themselves formally accredited by accreditation bodies ; hence they are sometimes known as "accredited...
service. Patel started his first non-profit StudentsHelp.org (www.studentshelp.org) at age 17, which helped provide computer services and technical support to needy people around the world.
Volunteer networking
One of the unique features of the HealthCare Volunteer website is its ability to allow volunteers to create online profiles and connect with other volunteers. Once volunteers have signed up and created their profiles, they can form volunteering teams for service at home or abroad.Exercising a 'free volunteering' philosophy
HealthCare Volunteer has sought to reduce the financial burdens for both volunteers and organizations. First, volunteers pay no money to search HealthCare Volunteer for volunteering opportunities nor must organizations pay any money to post their volunteering opportunities on HealthCare Volunteer. Secondly, HealthCare Volunteer strives to exclusively partner with organizations that do not charge their volunteers additional money beyond accommodation and other essential services in order to volunteer. HealthCare Volunteer believes that volunteers are already volunteering their time and effort and should not be required to pay additional fees above the basic costs (travel, accommodation, and basic services).Organizational awards
In 2007, HealthCare Volunteer began awarding volunteers who helped advance the mission of HealthCare Volunteer.2007 Awards:
| Award | Recipient | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Leadership | Ravi Raghavan | For fundraising, recruiting, public relations, and new partnerships |
| Medical Field Excellence | Dr. Samuel Feinstein | For surgery work in Tanzania |
| Dental Field Excellence | Dr. Jason Ehtessabian | For dental work in Tanzania |
| Innovation Award | Dr. Tara Athan, PhD | For world's first health-related NGO and volunteer interactive, online map |
| Opportunity Expansion Award | Erick Mlanga | For creating volunteering opportunities in Tanzania |
| Organizational Award | Carolina Myans | For uploading new volunteering opportunities onto HealthCare Volunteer's website |
| Student Volunteer Award | Colin Casault | For overcoming numerous obstacles to perform volunteer work in rural Tanzania |
2008 Awards:
| Award | Recipient | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Leadership | Ravi Raghavan | This year, Mr. Raghavan launched the India chapter of HealthCare Volunteer and recruited new volunteers from India. |
| Medical Field Excellence | Dr. Seth Podolsky | For public health medical work in Galapagos Islands |
| Dental Field Excellence | Andi Michels | For dental work in Tanzania |
| Innovation Award | Adil Shafique | For world's first health-related NGO and volunteer interactive, online map |
| Opportunity Expansion Award | Catherine Matthys | For creating volunteering opportunities in Tanzania |
| Student Volunteer Award | Sarah Richardson | For overcoming numerous obstacles to perform volunteer work in rural Tanzania |
External links
- HealthCare Volunteer website
- Dental Volunteer website
- New York Times mention
- Shreveport Times mention
- KTLA - Los Angeles Story
- TV interview with Company's Founder
- Documentary with Company's Founder with Starbucks Coffee Foundation
- Brainstorming Interview with Company's Founder
- Company's Founder mentioned in the Financial Times
- Company's Founder, Neilesh Patel, awarded Humanitarian Award
- Company's Founder mentioned by UCLA Newsroom