Who Are We?
The International Health Volunteers Organization (IHVO) is an independent, not for profit humanitarian medical service organization whose primary goal is to encourage, engage, and assist medical personnel who wish to volunteer their skills with international health care projects. IHVO is a developmental outreach program of the Academy of Medicine which was created by the Duval County Medical Society as a not for profit 501-c-3 corporation in 1959. The Academy has operated since its conception exclusively for charitable, scientific, and educational purposes.
Over the years, the Academy has assisted in the establishment of the Jacksonville Health Education Program (JHEP), implemented countywide inoculation programs of the polio and the rubella vaccine and encouraged and supported local medical research. In addition, through medical community donations, medicines have been sent to aid third world countries, and the very successful WE CARE program was established providing over six million dollars worth of free medical care and services to the homeless, working poor, underinsured and uninsured local children and adults. Additional community health relief projects developed by the Academy are Hubbard House (Domestic Violence Shelter for Women), Healthy Start for Children, Mercy Ships, as well as urgent medical care for hurricane and disaster relief.
IHVO is the international outreach program of the Academy whose primary purpose is to establish an accessible repository of physicians and other medical experts who would like to volunteer in domestic and international short-term medical service projects. By establishing an easy to use on-line data-base of interested medical personnel and reputable organizations, IHVO aims to facilitate the placement of medical experts with the most appropriate medical outreach programs that matches their skills and interests. The organizational intent is to promote, encourage, facilitate and support physician volunteers and their families in an effort to assist them in collaboration with medical missions that optimize the use of their talents. This will be implemented by providing a user friendly, comprehensive and centralized web site with directories of physician availability and useful information regarding different medical relief organizations and their projects worldwide.
There is a worldwide shortage of capable trained health volunteers particularly in developing countries. Despite this, relatively few physicians have had any experience in meaningful international humanitarian missions. There are many reasons why doctors donate their time to combat disease and sickness abroad. Among these can be included, wanting to help the less fortunate, disenchantment with existing medical practice, a chance to put philosophical/moral convictions into action, an opportunity to teach, religious principles, etc. Despite these compelling factors, the minority of physicians (<3% by some estimates) volunteers their time. A significant factor in this equation is that there are currently limited resources available for physicians to prospectively evaluate available organizations which best fit their “volunteer objectives”. By providing an easy to use directory facilitating the linking of doctors with compatible organizations, the organization hopes to increase the number of physicians interested in volunteerism. IHVO is committed to the concept of “Think locally, act globally. Volunteerism must be encouraged at a regional level utilizing pre-existing resources as the Duval County Medical Society. If the endeavor were successful as a regional pilot project it would be a very scalable project with other regional or national medical societies.
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