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HealthCare Volunteer announces Official Launch of Free Worldwide Healthcare Volunteer Mobilization System.

Los Angeles, CA (5/15/2006) - - Every day thousands of health care workers scour the Internet looking for a way to improve health care access and systems in an altruistic manner. Many of their fruitless hours of searching on the Internet end in frustration, whether it is a volunteer clinician or untrained volunteer simply looking to assist in the most needed areas of their communities or abroad.

In January, 2006, Neilesh Patel and Elliot Mendelsohn, a dental and medical student respectively, launched HealthCare Volunteer (www.healthcarevolunteer.org / .com) , a new 501 (c ) (3) non-profit initiative to mobilize volunteers interested in health care volunteering, to fight the health care access issue in regions most in need. After four months of rigorous development, the web site is now among the most sophisticated volunteer connection systems on the Internet, and connects volunteers with the right volunteering opportunity in health care for free. The web site lists volunteering opportunities for every type of health care professional and for those with no health care training at all. Tens of thousands of volunteers have visited the site and the organization has now helped connect thousands of volunteers with volunteering opportunities. “We wanted to create a useful yet easy-to-use system where people could find the right healthcare volunteering opportunity for free,” says Neilesh Patel, Founder and Co-CEO of HealthCare Volunteer. The organization is one of the few organizations that do not charge fees for volunteering organizations to list their opportunities.

The latest annual 2006 WHO report says that more than a billion people worldwide lack access to the most basic health care -- often because there is no health worker. Too much focus has been placed on fighting health care access through the traditional health care system (HMO, Medicare/Medicaid), while a free resource of thousands of eager health care volunteers goes untapped. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration on Aging, the population of over-65 year olds will rise from 36.3 million in 2004 to 71.5 million by 2030. These retired people will soon be looking for ways in which to provide community service back to the health care system. Furthermore, volunteering from all age groups is on the rise, and younger generations are more likely to search for opportunities on the Internet. Public Health has become a large area of volunteering interest as globalization has made it easier and more desirable for volunteers to gain access to new opportunities around the world. While there are other organizations that provide volunteer connection services, HealthCare Volunteer is specific for volunteers interested in finding a meaningful opportunity in health care, yet provides its array of services free of charge.

Last week, the organization announced the launch of Project Requirements which will help assist volunteers find out legal and procedural requirements before a volunteer can perform service in a given location. The project aims to provide data provided by governments on requirements for both lay and trained health care volunteers. In addition, the organization also launched the HealthCare Volunteer Public Health Aid Network, which allows volunteers to sign up to provide aid during a public health event. The organization will provide all listings of volunteers for free to local governments in the event of a public health event. The organization and its free services are still in their infancy, but continue to grow rapidly.

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HealthCare Volunteer was started in January 1, 2006 by an American dental and medical student, who realized the need for a free non-profit portal that connects all volunteers interested in health care to volunteering opportunities. Due to resource constraints, several national health care organizations rightfully chose not to undertake such a drastic project, and so the opportunity to unite health care volunteers globally remained. It was clear that an independent, 3rd party, non-partisan, non-governmental organization (NGO) unaffiliated with any country or entity needed to be formed to promote health care volunteering in a rapidly globalizing world. Everyone from the Co-CEOs to the Board of Directors has voluntarily chosen to forego all financial compensation for their efforts in making this organization and its service a reality.

Press/Media Contact:
Neil Patel
310-928-3611
Neil.patel@healthcarevolunteer.com
http://www.healthcarevolunteer.com


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