What's Happening

Too often, families who qualify for WIC nutrition support face barriers like transportation challenges, limited access, and lack of information. Mobile WIC programs offer a powerful way to bridge that gap—bringing vital resources directly into communities. We've designed a Mobile WIC Toolkit to help WIC providers start, maintain, or strengthen mobile services. Whether you're just getting started or refining an existing program, this guide gives you everything you need to succeed: clear instructions, practical considerations, real-world insights, and ready-to-use tools like checklists, templates, and how-to guides. Developed in partnership with the Family Health Council of Central Pennsylvania and informed by interviews with successful mobile WIC programs nationwide, the toolkit offers best practices and proven strategies to expand your impact. By taking services on the road, WIC providers can deliver essential nutrition support, health education, breastfeeding resources, and healthcare referrals—improving the health and well-being of women, infants, and children across the country. Ready to bring WIC services to more families?Download the Mobile WIC Toolkit and get started today.

Mental health support remains out of reach for far too many. Marginalized communities face significant access barriers—from location, cost and stigma to a lack of culturally and linguistically diverse providers. The need for innovative solutions has never been greater. Watch this insightful webinar and discover how mobile clinics are breaking down mental health access barriers and bringing care directly to underserved populations. Tune in to hear from these pioneering programs:  Maine Mobile Health – Serving seasonal farmworkers and their families in rural Maine   The Family Van – Supporting multicultural and multilingual communities in Boston Watch the Recording Additional Resources: We invite you to explore these additional blogs, programs, tools, and articles on mobile healthcare and mental health access. Read Blog: Healthy Roads: A Community-Driven Approach to Mental Wellness The World Health Organization’s Problem Management Plus Curriculum (Healthy Roads was adapted from PM+.) PAX Health Social Prescribing USA Art Pharmacy About the Artwork: We are so grateful for the incredible ARTWORK featured in our graphic! This beautiful piece was created by a 20-year-old participant in an arts contest hosted by The Family Van earlier this Spring. As part of this contest, young artists, ages 24 and under, shared their mental health journeys through their work, highlighting how art can be a powerful tool for self-expression, connection, and healing. A huge thank you to all the young artists for sharing their voices with us, and to the Boston Public Health Commission for supporting this contest! About the Innovative Programs Featured: CHAS Health, a non-profit Federally Qualified Health Center based in Spokane, WA, serves over 120,000 patients in the Inland Northwest, providing medical, dental, behavioral health, pharmacy, and health education services to all, regardless of insurance. The CHAS Health Mobile Clinic brings care to rural communities and unhoused patients, addressing access barriers. Their Mobile & Street Medicine Program offers primary and urgent care, along with behavioral health support at shelters, meal sites, schools, and other community locations. In 2023, they hosted 300 mobile clinics, partnering with 45 organizations to serve 1,934 patients through 3,521 street medicine encounters. Speaker: Will Matney, RN, BSN, Director of ...

Ready to boost your clinic’s impact? Check out our Map 101 Demo and Learning Webinar! The session provides a valuable overview of the free and secure tools and resources available to assist your mobile clinic in measuring and effectively communicating its impact. We were also honored to host a panel discussion featuring experts Jennifer Bennet from Mobile Healthcare Association, Patrick Dineen from Stony Brook Cancer Center, and Maria Emerson from Virtua Health.  Please find the essential links below to access the information shared during the session. Watch the Recording   How to Get Started:  Register at https://www.mobilehealthmap.org/sign-up/ If you are already registered, login at: https://www.mobilehealthmap.org/login/ Complete our Data Collection Worksheet to assist you in creating your dashboard.  Research:  https://www.mobilehealthmap.org/category/research/ Calculating the return on investment of mobile healthcare Watch the Recording

Are you a mobile healthcare provider looking for an easy way to evaluate your impact, share it with stakeholders, and increase your visibility? If so, our free and confidential tools can help. With Mobile Health Map, it’s easier than ever to add your clinic to our map and create a personalized dashboard. Let’s look at how our platform helps you show people the difference you are making! Easy-to-use digital tools to evaluate your impact We understand that your time is limited and valuable, which is why we have developed a user-friendly platform that makes adding your mobile clinic to the map easy. With just a few clicks, you will be able to input all necessary information about your location, services provided, contact information, and more. You will also be able to create a personalized dashboard to evaluate your impact and answer the following questions: Who do you serve? What are your most popular services? What is the economic impact of your preventive services? How does your mobile clinic meet public health quality standards? Secure and confidential data storage Our platform is secure and private. We understand that data security is of utmost importance to you; this is why we take steps to ensure all data related to registered clinics is safeguarded from unauthorized access. We do not collect individual patient data and we will never share your clinic's aggregate data in an identifiable way. Your listing on the map includes your location, community type (e.g. rural, urban), types of care delivered (e.g. primary care, dental), and funding sources (e.g. philanthropy, insurance). We do not share your clinic's specific service information such as number of people served or operating costs. Benefits of mapping Your location There are many reasons to add your mobile clinic to the map. For starters, you will be easily found by people searching for healthcare providers in their area. Additionally, this will increase visibility for your organization as well as draw attention from local government organizations or other entities looking for ways to provide better access to health care services in underserved areas or communities with limited ...

Download the slides At the 2023 Annual Rural Health Conference hosted by the National Rural Health Association, our Executive Director, Mollie Williams, presented new data highlighting the impact of mobile clinics in rural communities. This data underscores the vital role mobile clinics play in improving access to care, reducing health disparities, and driving economic benefits in rural areas across the country. New data about the impact of rural mobile clinics Our presentation shared a new analysis of rural mobile clinics across the United States including who they reach and the services they provide, including immunizations, blood pressure screening, and mammography. Using Dr. Nancy Oriol's algorithm to estimate the economic benefit of mobile clinics, we presented how mobile clinics save lives, reduce healthcare costs, and provide economic benefit to communities. Mobile clinics deliver high-value care in rural communities Mobile health care has grown exponentially over the past three years as providers sought creative ways to deliver COVID-related services while continuing to meet communities’ ongoing healthcare needs. As the field of mobile health continues to evolve, it is important to understand the unique aspects of rural mobile health and how providers can sustain efforts that began as a response to COVID-19 and now have the opportunity to adapt and meet other rural health needs. What we already know about mobile healthcare Mobile health programs have been shown to be effective in the management of chronic diseases, such as asthma and hypertension, as well as in the improvement of self-efficacy and participation in recommended preventive screenings. Increasingly, health care providers are delivering behavioral health, harm reduction, and crisis intervention services using mobile health units. Some organizations also couple mobile health care with telemedicine to expand access to specialists while overcoming the digital divide. Let's connect! If you want to talk about opportunities to advance rural health, please reach out. We must continue to invest in the capacity mobile providers to adapt and sustain their efforts to meet the changing needs of communities. Download the slides

How do mobile clinics reduce costs? The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked innovation in health care delivery, including new and expanded use of mobile clinics. In addition, the pandemic has raised awareness about long-standing disparities and the need for community-based solutions to advance health equity. There is strong evidence that mobile clinics improve health outcomes and reduce costs to the health care system and to society-at-large. Likewise, we need to understand how mobile clinics reduce costs and align with health care organizations’ financial incentives. Business pressures shape decisions about community programs In this report, we explore how mobile clinics support the business objectives of health care organizations. By understanding how health care leaders view mobile health programs and their impact on the organization’s bottom line, mobile clinics can sustain or expand their efforts to deliver health care to underserved communities. We conducted semi-structured key informant interviews with 25 health care leaders to explore their views and experiences related to mobile health care. Subsequently, we used thematic analysis to identify patterns and create a conceptual framework. An advisory group with expertise in mobile health, health management, and health care finance informed data collection and analysis. New framework for equity and impact Health care leaders described multiple ways mobile clinics bolster business objectives of health care organizations. For example, many discussed the impact of mobile clinics on organizational culture, business strategy, budget, and health equity. With this in mind, we present a conceptual framework that demonstrates how these factors, supported by community engagement and data, come together to form a business case for mobile health care. The report provides a timely, in-depth look into mobile clinics. Furthermore, it helps us understand how they advance health while reconciling the business pressures that health care organizations face. Download the full report or an executive summary. Download the full report or executive summary to read how mobile clinics do the following: Bridge gaps in access to quality care Build trust with marginalized communities Attract, inspire, and retain healthcare talent Create new business opportunities Encourage innovation and community engagement Why does this report matter? The COVID-19 pandemic ...