SOMG Students Lead Free Lifestyle Medicine Clinic for Vietnamese Community

Medical students from the USC School of Medicine Greenville (SOMG) conducted a free clinic event focused on Lifestyle Medicine and healthcare navigation for the Vietnamese immigrant community at Greenville Vietnamese Baptist Church. The initiative aims to provide education and resources to improve health management, particularly addressing chronic conditions like hypertension. The event emphasized preparing for aging through topics such as power of attorney for healthcare, life insurance, and healthy habits grounded in Lifestyle Medicine principles which include nutrition, exercise, sleep, social connectivity, avoiding harmful substances, and stress management. This outreach program, now in its second year, highlights the value of culturally and linguistically aligned healthcare education. Organizers noted a case where early detection of breast cancer was facilitated by student intervention during a previous event, underscoring the impact of targeted community engagement in preventive care and navigation of the healthcare system. The program benefits from collaboration with community organizations such as Root Cause, which provided medical equipment like blood pressure cuffs to aid in onsite health assessments. SOMG faculty members specializing in Lifestyle Medicine and community engagement played key roles in shaping the educational content and ensuring the clinic’s effectiveness. Looking forward, the organizers plan to expand the program by incorporating more medical translation services to broaden access and participation at the upcoming RAM Free Health Clinic in February 2026. This initiative reflects growing recognition of the need to tailor healthcare outreach and education to underserved populations to improve health outcomes and compliance with preventative care recommendations.