The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Visitation and Check-In:
NOTE ON ALL ACTIVITIES CONDUCTED BY THE WARREN ALPERT MEDICAL SCHOOL OF BROWN UNIVERSITY: These activities are rapidly evolving, and new information and updates can be found at https://sites.google.com/brown.edu/covid19/get-involved/student-initiatives.
AMS Virtual Visits: With strict social distancing and self-quarantine measures recommended for older adults and with the closure of nursing facilities and ALFs to visitors, many older adults may be suffering in isolation. In addition, there are school-aged children who have been forced to stay home and abandon their education while our community tries to battle Coronavirus Disease 2019. AMS Virtual Visits virtually connects with school-aged children and older adults to provide community and support and combat isolation and loneliness.
Contact Information:
Swechya Banskota (swechya_banskota@brown.edu)
Wellness:
Community Health Worker Association of Rhode Island: In collaboration with local senior centers, the Community Health Worker Association of Rhode Island (CHWARI) has developed a phone bank to reach out to selected older adults whom senior center staff consider at risk for increased isolation due to social distancing.
Contact Information:
Outreach and Social Media:
Coordinating efforts with RIDOH, Lifespan, Brown, local businesses, and community members to collect donations, create new supplies, etc. Help spread the word to the RI community by sharing to individuals, FB groups, business FB pages. Follow us on Twitter at @GetUsPPE_RI and retweet us! We are contacting businesses & labs in the RI area that may have PPE or other supplies that health care providers need. It would be great if people could email and call businesses in their free time (even if you only have an hour or two).
Contact Information:
Vivian Chan Li (vivian_li@brown.edu)
Research and Data Collection:
Creating a website for providers taking care of pediatric patients, with summaries of the latest pediatric literature and collection of pediatric algorithms.
Contact Information:
Katie Hsia (katie_hsia@brown.edu), Dr. Silvia Chiang (silvia_chiang@brown.edu)
COVID-19 Education:
Educational Graphic Outreach Campaign: Creating shareable multi-photo informational posts/graphics for social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Learn more about educational outreach proposal.
Contact Information:
Olivia Ziegler (olivia_ziegler@brown.edu), Andrew Del Re (andrew_del_re@brown.edu)
Poverty and Assistance:
Food drive for people experiencing homelessness: RI Medical Navigator Partnership (RIMNP) & House of Hope are partnering to safely collect & deliver food to people who are currently or recently experienced chronic homelessness. Many regular meal sites have either closed or have reduced service capacity due to COVID-19, so there is massive food insecurity amongst the folks we work with. Please donate canned goods, snacks, and other non-perishable foods to the RIMNP Collection Box at the back door of 59 East Transit St. Providence. We ask that you sanitize/wipe down your donations before dropping them off.
House of Hope is also collecting monetary donations to be used to purchase food/grocery store gift cards for people experiencing food insecurity. Please use this link, click “donate” in the top right corner, and insert “covidfoodrelief” in the description box when making your donation to donate to this specific effort.
Contact Information:
Neha Reddy (neha_g_reddy@brown.edu), Isabel Chin (isabel_chin@brown.edu)
Clinical Work:
MARI Respiratory Care Center (Bristol, RI): The RCC is designed to evaluate patients with URI symptoms suspicious for COVID-19. AMS was contacted by Medical Associates of RI (MARI), located in Bristol. Students will be responsible for calling patients and documenting a thorough HPI, pertinent history, and med rec in the EMR. You will also complete CDC documentation for the person under investigation (PUI.) There will be 2 medical students per 7 hour shift. Your participation will require driving to their facility in Bristol (~25 minutes from Providence). Of note, you will not have direct contact with PUI or any patients (other than over the phone). During downtime, students will have the opportunity to study if they like. Please note this opportunity is currently only for AMS 3rd/4th year students.
Contact Information:
Rose Montplaisir (rose_montplaisir@brown.edu), Harry VanDusen (harry_vandusen@brown.edu)
Research and Data Collection:
Medical students are helping to survey the existing literature to gather national protocols, scientific literature, and new CDC guidelines related to COVID-19.
Contact Information:
Lanbo Yang (lanbo_yang@brown.edu)
Information Hotline:
Medical students are staffing the hotline on Rhode Island Hospital/Lifespan’s website, which is available to anyone who may have questions, from patients to providers. Please note this opportunity is currently only for AMS students.
Contact Information:
Internal Activity | Hannah Kerman (hannah_kerman@brown.edu), Lindsay Dreizler (lindsay_dreizler@brown.edu), Kira Bromwich (kira_bromwich@brown.edu)
General Services:
Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) is asking for student volunteers. This is all low risk work without patient exposure, but is essential work. There are currently five teams:
1) Negative callouts: notifying patients/physicians of negative results
2) Contact tracing/national guard: investigating exposures of positive patients, notifying exposed individuals
3) Long-term care (LTC) facilities: triaging LTC residents’ and healthcare workers’ need for testing
4) Triage: responding to undifferentiated clinical calls from providers and patients and classifying their acuity
5) Volunteer scheduling: overseeing student volunteer staffing
Please note this opportunity is currently only for AMS students.
Contact Information:
Internal Activity | Christopher Demas (christopher_demas@brown.edu), James Scharfen (james_scharfen@brown.edu), Tammy Yu (tammy_yu@brown.edu), Michael Zaskey (michael_zaskey@brown.edu)
Childcare:
With RI school and daycare closures, many providers are scrambling to figure out childcare. As the numbers of COVID19 cases in RI rise, many additional needs may arise as well (dog walks, grocery shopping, etc.). Medical students around the country are coordinating efforts to support the providers in their area. Please note this opportunity is currently only for Brown medical and graduate students.
Contact Information:
Internal Activity | Kristy Blackwood (kristy_blackwood@brown.edu), Lindsey Kahan (lindsey_kahan@brown.edu)
General Services:
Woonsocket Area Career and Tech High School online health education: AMS students can create a slideshow, demo, or lecture (about 25 min) on a health topic of their choice. Students in the health careers track will watch the videos and respond to a question that you pose at the end. (You do not need to respond to these essays, however.) This counts as service learning for Year 1.
Contact Information:
Julia Noguchi (Director of Service Learning & Community Mentoring) (julia_noguchi@brown.edu)