What would it look like if a medical center were set up to attend to the social conditions that affect health, such as housing, food, employment, education, transportation, and social support? 

That’s the question Dr. John Hatch worked to answer when he served as the primary community organizer for the community health center in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, the first rural community-based public health program. In this final episode of the Our Health Stories podcast, we explore the legacy of Dr. Hatch, whose stablished the framework for community engagement that health centers use to this day.

Four years after the start of the infamous syphilis experiment, Dr. Robert Smith was born in rural Terry, Mississippi. In this episode, Our Health Stories explores the legacy of Dr. Smith, who helped initiate the formation of the Medical Committee for Human Rights, which would serve as the medical arm of the civil rights movement, and more specifically to treat civil rights activists during the forthcoming Freedom Summer activities.

Sometimes it can feel like compassion is in short supply in the health care sector–both for patients and for health care workers. In this episode, Our Health Stories explores the story of Dr. Jasmin Chapman, CEO of Jackson Hinds, who credits her staff with the health center’s success, emphasizing how they “understood the value of an FQHC and the need for health care for all.”

Thirty-five million individuals in the United States face significant challenges paying their medical bills–that’s one out of every five people in this country. In this episode, Our Health Stories explores the legacy of Dr. Aaron Shirley, a physician and pioneer for social justice in health care and civil rights in Jackson, Mississippi.

In this introductory episode of the Our Health Stories podcast, Joel Bervell, host of The Dose podcast from The Commonwealth Fund and medical myth buster, shares what's to come in this five-part series.