A Message from our President:

I started Omni Med in 1998 after having seen the unnecessary suffering of those in sub-Sahara Africa, an experience that forever changed my life. I then found it difficult to find the right means to return to Africa years later, and thus began to develop an easier means for people to engage. I have since been joined by a committed core of health providers who share similar ideals.

Martin Luther King once said, “The racial problem in America will be solved to the degree that every American considers himself personally confronted with it.” We can extend a similar rationale to the problem of global health inequality, which will also be solved only to the degree that a critical mass of people—particularly those in medicine—feel personally confronted with it.

In a world in which 28,000 children under age five die every day of treatable illness and 1.1 billion live on less than $1 per day, we can and should find ways to bring better health and health care to those in greatest need. If you have ever been interested in serving, or would like to reconnect to the ideals that first attracted you to a career in medicine, then please contact Omni Med about serving through any of our programs, or follow the clear directions in our two books: Awakening Hippocrates: A Primer on Health, Poverty, and Global Service; and A Practical Guide to Global Health Service. Omni Med’s work has evolved into the following:

Health Volunteerism: Omni Med has a program in Uganda that bring health providers with some or no prior international experience to short-term, effective teaching trips, rendering maximal impact for both volunteers and learners. We have had similar programs in Belize, Guyana, and Kenya. We work with the American Medical Association (AMA) to publish the above books on global health service that explore root causes of poverty, review pragmatic steps of health volunteerism, and encourage direct service through our large database of service opportunities.

Program Development: We encourage our volunteers to develop sustainable, cooperative programs that improve health for the poor. Examples include: a national cervical cancer screening initiative in Guyana; continuing medical education programs in Belize, Guyana, and Kenya; and an eye screening and treatment program in Thailand.

Ethical Leadership: The U.S. medical profession should engage global health inequality far more than it has. Omni Med provides an opportunity for health providers to develop their own leadership skills as part of an overarching, moral vision to improve health for the poor. Through the transforming experience of direct service in poor countries, many more US health providers will engage the problem directly in an ongoing fashion, and, ultimately, exert their influence directly on others in the medical profession, and in the corridors of power in the United States.

Omni Med is a registered 501 (c)(3) under the IRS code and gladly accepts donations to support our work. In 2005, the Ayuda Federation accepted Omni Med as a member, and as a part of the combined federal campaign (CFC).