Doctors within borders

One July weekend in Wise, VA, a huge annual medical and dental expedition was set up by Remote Area Medical, a nonprofit organization that provides basic medical and dental care to people in the world’s most inaccessible regions. This year, more than 1,800 volunteer doctors, dentists, nurses, and assistants descended on Wise, setting up enormous field-hospital-style tents in which they saw roughly 2,500 patients over the course of two and a half days. The Knoxville, TN-based Remote Area Medical runs about 15 similar clinics around the world every year, from Guyana to East Africa and rural parts of Appalachia, and the clinics underscore the healthcare dilemmas of the poorest Americans.