September 19, 2007 was a proud day in the history of the Indian Medical Association of New England.  On that day, Free Health Stop, at the India Center in Shrewsbury, MA, celebrated its 100th session.  It has been a dream for IMANE to have a Health Care facility to provide much needed free health services available to anyone in the community.  In October 2005, our dream came true when we joined hands with the India Society of Worcester and started Free Health Stop.  Since the beginning, volunteers from IMANE and the ISW have been working hard to provide services to the community.  Since January, 2007, we have provided services to 190 people who have visited our Free Health Stop for their medical needs.  Over 90% of the people using our services were of Indian heritage and most of them were parents of people settled here in New England.  We have even had visitors come from as far as New Hampshire and Maine.

At our Free Health Stop, we provide services related to Primary Care, Pediatrics and dietary consultation every Wednesday, Hypertension and Nephrology every 3rd Wednesday; and Cardiology every 1st Wednesday.  We also have referral services for Ob-Gyn, Surgery, Ophthalmology, Gastroenterology and Neurology.  We are grateful to LabCorp laboratories for providing many free lab tests for our patients.

  As director of the Free Health Stop, I would like to thank Dr. Rohit Vakil, Dr. Neeta Shah, Dr. Kavita Navani, Dr. Dhansukhlal Mandalaywala, Mrs. Carolyn Passey and Mrs. Hasumati Patel for their dedication and hard work to make this venture a success.  We are always in need of volunteers to work at the Free Health Stop and specialists to take care of our referrals in their offices.  If any of you can help us, please contact me at freehealthstop@gmail.com.

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