Interview with the Student Founders of Oregon Mobile Medical

Orion Falvey and Oliver Alexander, business students at the University of Oregon, recently placed second in the Oregon Social Business Challenge, where they shared the stage with Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus. As finalists, they received followup coaching from the PSU Social Innovation Incubator for their concept, Oregon Mobile Medical, a community mobile health clinic in Southern Oregon. Between studying at university and planning their clinic’s pilot project, they were kind enough to (somehow) find time for our interview.

Impact Entrepreneurs: How would you describe your venture in a single tweet?

Oliver and Orion: We aim to provide consistent and affordable health care to rural communities who currently don’t have access to medical facilities.

What is a mobile health clinic, and how does your model work?

Our clinic will be based out of a vehicle which will park in rural areas on a revolving schedule. Our model is unique because it combines rural healthcare with a cooperative monthly payment plan so that more people can afford our services.

How big is the problem of limited access to healthcare providers in rural Oregon?

Limited healthcare access is a big problem in a state as large as Oregon; the Federal government has even classified some parts of Oregon as  “medically underserved areas”

What communities will your clinic initially serve, and how did you identity them? 

We are planning on rolling out the clinic in Oakridge first, and then to other communities within Lane and Klamath counties. We chose Oakridge because it’s a medically underserved town that has a (relatively) large population that would be interested in our service.

What is it about this particular problem that motivated you to search for a solution?

We set out to find a problem that was challenging, had potential to greatly impact individual lives, and was scalable. That’s why settled on healthcare, and then developed the mobile clinic idea.

What are the next steps for Oregon Mobile Medical?

We are currently networking with people who are involved with healthcare in [the town of] Oakridge and Lane county. We are also planning our market research presentation in oakridge while searching for seed grants.

What single thing could someone reading this do to support your mobile health clinic? 

We are searching for seed grants so that we can carry out further research in Oakridge, so we would greatly appreciate finding a grant that could help! Also, if you are involved in healthcare law/administration, we would love to talk to you!

Oliver (L) and Orion (R) receive their award from Muhammad Yunus.