Thank You From DOCS

It is hard to believe another year has come and gone and with it, another exciting season of DOCS! On behalf of our Wolfson DOCS family, we want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to all those who made this year possible - from our philanthropic donors whose generosity allows us to accomplish our goals to our hardworking students and physicians who donate countless hours to serving our patients, DOCS is built on a foundation of true dedication to serving the community.

Though we learned a great deal from our first full year operating during the COVID-19 pandemic, this past year was not without its unexpected challenges. Variants and surges threatened to upend fairs and clinics at a time when we were hoping to return to pre-pandemic levels of operations. However, the dedication of our donors, community partners, and volunteers allowed Wolfson DOCS to continue to address the needs of our patients and even expand the services offered to the medically underserved despite a constantly evolving and often uncertain situation.

This year marks the 21st Anniversary of the Mitchell Wolfson Sr. DOCS program creation. Though the Miller school has hosted community health fairs since the 1970s, it was in 2001 that the various medical student groups running these fairs decided to join forces and create the “Department of Community Service.” Such a collaboration of efforts has allowed the DOCS program and its health fairs and clinics to flourish under one umbrella organization for more than 2 decades now.

The end of our tenure as Executive Directors has prompted us to reflect on how much the Wolfson DOCS program has changed our lives as students and future physicians; we feel so grateful for the unparalleled experiences that DOCS has given us in the realms of leadership, mentorship, and friendship. Each University of Miami Miller School of Medicine student who gets to experience a DOCS program—whether that is volunteering through a DOCS clinic, spending a day at a health fair, or presenting at our conference—gets to experience a taste of the unique mission of DOCS in providing quality and compassionate care to all patients and develop an ethos for health care delivery that matters.

We want to express our gratitude for the incredible generosity of the Mitchell Wolfson Sr. Foundation. Their commitment to the sustainability of the DOCS program allows us to deliver consistent care to the patients in our community while also training the next generation of physician leaders to foster a lifelong commitment to serving the needs of underserved patients.

We would also like to thank the numerous other donors whose gifts have assisted us to carry out our mission this year. In particular, we were honored to be selected by the University of Miami Health System’s (UHealth) Department of Community Health as the winners of the Community Health and Benefit Grant, with which we will be able to expand our screening capabilities to include gonorrhea/Chlamydia, hemoglobin A1C, and hepatitis B screening at future health fairs.

Lastly, we profoundly thank our DOCS faculty advisor, Dr. Amar R. Deshpande, and RMC DOCS faculty advisor, Dr. Julia Belkowitz, for their constant guidance of our program and dedication to its success. We also thank our DOCS Manager and “Mom,” Raysa Christodoulou, whose daily support and assistance to our students cannot be overstated. The support that we and our DOCS student leaders have received through this mentorship has made this experience such a treasured time and has inspired us to continue the mission of this work into our future careers.

As we look to the future, we feel more hopeful than ever about the durability and capabilities of this organization. The unique challenges we have faced and the novel solutions our staff, volunteers, and community partners have championed have proven the resiliency of Wolfson DOCS. We are confident the Wolfson DOCS program will be able to meet any difficulties that lie ahead and remain committed to serving our community.

Your 2021-2022 Executive Co-Directors Billy Scola, Sirisha Gaddipati, and Rick Lin