Dayton Business Journal: Wright State’s ‘primary care on wheels’ initiative coming to Dayton in 2025

One of the region’s largest universities will set in motion a new care model for those battling substance abuse disorders. The project will also provide training opportunities for the university’s medical and behavioral health students.

The Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine announced a shift to provide health care services to people with substance use disorders through a mobile community-based health care (street medicine) model. Organizers will begin operating the mobile clinic in early 2025.

The project acts as the latest collaboration in the 30-year enhanced affiliation agreement between Wright State and Premier Health. It will utilize services at the Dayton Dream Center – a nonprofit outreach center on East Third Street in Dayton.

The initiative is organized by:

• Anna Murley Squibb – program director of the Addiction Medicine Fellowship at Wright State and program director of substance use and addiction services at Premier Health
• Marietta Orlowski – professor and chair of population and public health sciences
• Sydney Silverstein – assistant professor in the Center for Interventions, Treatment and Addictions Research.

Physicians, medical students and fellows in Wright State’s Addiction Medicine Fellowship will provide medical services through the Premier Health Mobile Clinic.

Services will include primary and preventive care, behavioral health support and care navigation, substance use screening and intervention and case management. Launched in 2019, Premier Health’s Mobile Clinic program has served thousands of patients who are uninsured or underinsured.

Street medicine programs are an innovative approach to meeting health care needs. They also act as a connector to social support services for individuals facing multiple health challenges compounded by housing insecurities and behavioral health issues – particularly substance use disorders.

Squibb described the concept as “primary care on wheels” for an underserved population. She said street medicine can bridge gaps for those “lost in the complexities of the health systems.”

“We can’t meet their individual needs with the traditional models,” Squibb said. “Street medicine literally and figuratively meets patients where they are and partners in the community of agencies to support improving health and quality of life.”

The project will also train Wright State medical and public health students to recognize and address substance use disorders and related issues. Organizers hope to eventually involve nursing and social work students in the project.

Silverstein said there is a high level of interest in the project among Boonshoft School of Medicine students. About 50 Wright State students will participate in Dayton Street Medicine training and outreach opportunities.

“A lot of them will tell me, ‘I want to go be a doctor because I never had a doctor who looked like me growing up,” Silverstein said. “They have a different sort of motivation, and this really fits the profile of the type of student that is conscientious, wants to do care work, sees the need and wants to meet that need. There are not many opportunities for that.”

Orlowski said students who participate in unique training programs like the Dayton Street Medicine project often pursue careers in those areas.

“It’s an opportunity to train the future generation of the workforce that will really change the ecosystem of care and health,” Orlowski said.

Isabelle Fox, a third-year medical student at the Boonshoft School of Medicine, said the program will be a great opportunity for medical students to grow in practicing clinical medicine with vulnerable populations.

“Being able to do a rotation in street medicine will allow students to learn about the importance of preventive medicine and addressing gaps in access to health care while receiving medical training in an interdisciplinary manner,” Fox said.

Read the article at bizjournals.com/dayton.