Physicians like Ved Gossain, MD, are stepping out of retirement for a few hours a week to provide specialty care to rural residents, according to a May 17 article posted on the American Medical Association website.
Dr. Gossain, an endocrinologist, is a volunteer at the MAVEN project, a nonprofit that connects retired and semiretired physicians with safety-net clinics and community health centers. Volunteers provide medical consultations, mentoring and education.
"There are many rural areas that don't have a single doctor in my specialty," Dr. Gossain said in the article. "Upper Michigan, for example, probably has one endocrinologist, maybe two."
The MAVEN project has nearly 300 partner sites in 21 states and more than 160 volunteers in more than 60 specialties. Volunteers need to be licensed in only one state to participate.
"To keep my clinical skills up and also give something back to the community for no remuneration, I think this is almost a perfect match. I can do one e-consult a day or one e-consult a month," Dr. Gossain said. "Most doctors don't want to be fully occupied one day and then have nothing to do the next; everybody needs a transition, and sometimes the transition can be slow. What attracted me to the MAVEN Project is it allows me to continue to practice and, in the process, help primary care physicians deliver care so patients don't have to travel a hundred miles or more to see an endocrinology colleague of mine — if they can see one at all."