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ANNOUNCEMENT (05.09.2008):
The Omni Med Database of Global Health Service Opportunities will soon be online and searchable!!  Thanks to support from Salesforce.com, the Helen Steiner Rice Fund, Union Institute & University, and the Academy of Medicine of Cincinnati.

What if all health providers could easily and effectively work to improve the health of the global poor? What if the ideal of global health equity were to move from a surreal dream of the few into the mainstream of modern medicine, and health were to become a birthright for all people, regardless of their nationality or income? Since 1998, Omni Med has worked to catalyze a revolution in the medical profession to make such ideals become a reality; specifically, by helping a much larger percent of providers to work directly in developing countries, and make this most urgent work a part of the very fabric of their lives. 


Events such as the tsunamis of 2004 and Hurricane Katrina, as other disasters before them, inspired Americans to serve those in greatest need, and raised awareness of the larger forces that divide our world into haves and have-nots. However, those who respond to such calamities have often found it difficult to find the information needed to properly prepare for and find the right service opportunity. We at Omni Med have compiled data on service opportunities for health providers, as well as the best means to serve, particularly for those with little time or prior experience. We invite all of our colleagues to join us in the fight to create a more just world order. 


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 programs in Belize, Guyana, and Kenya 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 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 (www.ayudafederation.org) accepted Omni Med as a member, and as a part of the combined federal campaign (CFC). 97.9% of our funding goes toward programs; 2004 and 2005 audits available upon request.
   
 

Omni Med
81 Wyman Street, Suite #1
Waban, MA 02468
Phone: (617) 332-9614
Fax: (617) 332-6623
E-mail: ejoneil@omnimed.org
ejoneil@comcast.net
Website: www.omnimed.org