"Welcome to America – number 37 in the World Health Organization’s country rankings! I am a voice for more than half a million patients that REMOTE AREA MEDICAL®, (RAM®), has treated free of charge in 723 mobile medical clinics during the last 28 years. I know what it is like to be poor and without help. I am one voice of the millions of people who are not a part of our healthcare system. They have been left behind and forgotten. I speak for them today."- Stan Brock
Remote Area Medical is a non-profit, volunteer medical relief corps that provides free health care services and technical and educational assistance to people in remote areas of the United States, and around the world. I wanted to see if you'd be interested in speaking with the organization's founder, Stan Brock.
Born in Lancashire, England, Stan is best known for his years as the co-host for NBC's "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" from 1963-1971. Starting in 1985 RAM has mobilized over 80,000 volunteers and healthcare professionals to deliver over $75 million worth of free quality medical procedures and services. Stan had addressed The United States Congress on the needs of providing free quality healthcare to those who cannot afford it nor have direct access. Stanhas received numerous accolades for his work, including the prestigious Inamori Ethics Prize for Humanitarian Leaders in 2010 and CNN's Hero Award in 2012
This is really a film about people, not policy.
Focusing on a single three-day clinic held in the Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee, REMOTE AREA MEDICAL affords us an insider's perspective on the ebb and flow of the event - from the tense 3:30 a.m. ticket distribution that determines who gets seen to the routine check-ups that take dramatic turns for the worse, to the risky means to which some patients resort for pain relief. We meet a doctor who also drives an 18-wheeler, a denture maker who moonlights as a jeweler, and the organization's founder, Stan, who first imagined Remote Area Medical while living as a cowboy in the Amazon rainforest, hundreds of miles from the nearest doctor.
