Remote Area Medical's mission is to prevent pain and alleviate suffering by providing free, quality health care to those in need.
HISTORY
Chris Hall, RAM's chief operations officer, says the organization came about as the result of a misadventure endured in South America by Stan Brock, a British philanthropist and media personality who spent several years co-hosting "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" alongside the late Marlin Perkins. Hall says Brock was badly injured in a horseback accident while in South America, then was told he was 26 days from the nearest doctor. Brock resolved to make doctors and dentists available to individuals who don't have ready access to health or dental care, and launched RAM in 1985. Seven years later, RAM came to the U.S. Hall says Brock chose Knoxville for a base of operations because Tennessee is the Volunteer State and "that's what we were looking to get established." RAM relocated to its current Rockford, Tennessee headquarters in 2013; and Brock died there five years later in 2018.
SCOPE
Hall says that, since its founding, RAM has recruited more than 196,000 volunteers who have provided medical, dental and vision care to nearly a million individuals around the world. The dollar value of that care, he adds, is more than $195 million. RAM typically operates clinics during weekends, Hall says, and each clinic requires at least a year to plan. "The majority of our clinics set up on Friday, operate Saturdays and Sundays, then break down Sunday night and either go home or move to the next site," Hall says. RAM's next Chattanooga-area clinic is set for March 22-23 in Cleveland, Tennessee, at the North Cleveland Church of God.
DRAWING BOARD
Just off RAM's drawing board is its Digital Denture Lab -- "The first of its kind in the world," Hall says. He adds that the mobile lab gives RAM volunteers the ability to take a client's dental impressions on a given morning, generate 3D-printed dentures and send that client home with those brand-new dentures by the end of a weekend clinic. RAM has also recently debuted T9, a 53-foot trailer that includes three dental operatories, well-equipped enough to enable volunteer dentists to do cleanings, fillings and extractions.
BY THE NUMBERS
RAM's accounting of patients, value of care and volunteers in various parts of Southeast Tennessee:
South Pittsburg (clinics in 2004, 2006): 878 patients, $155,605 value of care, 266 volunteers
Signal Mountain (clinics in 2002, 2007, 2010): 1,454 patients, $441,880 value of care, 1,022 volunteers
East Ridge (five clinics, 2012-2023): 3,912 patients, $2.02M value of care, 2,159 volunteers
Chattanooga/Hamilton County (seven clinics, 2001-2021): 3,476 patients, $1.23M value of care, 741 volunteers
Cleveland/Bradley County (14 clinics, 1996-2022): 7,669 patients, $2.02M value of care, 2669 volunteers
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