In the first semester of his first year at the Miller School, Eyal Maidan made sure he was among the students who volunteered for the Hialeah Health Fair, the screening and educational outreach event that kicks off the medical school's annual health fair season.
Though he had the limited knowledge of a freshman, he pitched in as much as he could, soaking up the words and actions of volunteer physicians and residents as they helped patient after patient. He would attend nearly every health fair thereafter, logging hundreds of hours as a member and then leader of the Mitchell Wolfson Sr. Department of Community Service (DOCS), the student-run organization that plans and executes ten health fairs each year.
Maidan's DOCS experience not only reinforced the wisdom of his decision to go to medical school, but today makes the fourth-year student ideally suited for his new role as DOCS executive director.
"In the first year of medical school you spend a lot of time in lecture, but being in lecture doesn't really meet the expectations you have entering medical school," Maidan said. "You can't wait to be involved in patient care. Talking and interacting with real people who have real problems teaches us so much about medicine, the world we live in, and ourselves. DOCS provides us with the opportunity to do this in a patient's environment and on their terms as early as our first semester."
Not surprisingly, Maidan fell in love with DOCS from the first moment." Everything was well organized,'' he remembers. "Students were helping to make people healthy. We were learning while making a difference in people's lives. My first experience was great and I have stayed devoted ever since."
As executive director, Maidan is particularly excited that prior DOCS executive directors will be invited to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the oldest health fair, the Big Pine Keys Health Fair, in January. "I'm looking forward to seeing the impact being a part of DOCS had on their future lives as physicians," he says.
In the meantime, he hopes to continue improving the quality and scope of the organization's projects. Among his plans: improving data collection using a new clinic database focused on evidence-based medicine and integration with UChart; streamlining training protocols; increasing patient access to health care education; boosting research associated with DOCS health fairs and various clinics; and overseeing the DOCS involvement in the soon-to-open Lotus House Clinic in Overtown.
"I want to make as many positive changes as possible so that more students, physicians and patients can benefit from all that DOCS has to offer," said Maidan, who in previous years served as assistant logistics manager and project manager in the DOCS Saint John Bosco Student Clinic, and last season, as director of all clinics. "Being from Miami, I consider my time and effort a small but important contribution to the health of the region."
Maidan, who was born in Haifa, Israel, moved to Miami with his family when he was five. Over the years, he grew to love the enormous diversity of the city. Majoring in East Asian languages and literature, he graduated from the University of Florida in 2006 and yearned to do something where he could communicate with and learn from a wide cross-section of people while helping to improve their lives. Combining his other love, science, he chose medicine.
After earning his M.D. next year, Maidan hopes to land a residency in internal medicine and pediatrics, and to work in transitional care, which bridges the care gap that often exists between late teen years and early adulthood. He envisions a career in academic medicine, where he plans to continue the teaching and service-learning model of the Miller School.
"Medical students are eager to learn and they can't wait to go out and have an impact on the world," Maidan said. "I've been inspired by the doctors who dedicate their time to nurture these students and show them how to truly listen to and care for their patients. That's a tradition I'd like to continue to be a part of."
