Migrant Clinicians Network, Inc.

As an organization, MCN strives to create practical solutions at the intersection of vulnerability, migration, and health. We envision a world based on health justice and equity, where migration is never an impediment to well-being. We believe everyone has a right to uninterrupted, quality health care regardless of mobility, income, ethnicity, or status.

To remove barriers to care, we work with clinicians on the frontlines, helping them reach out to the underserved, the marginalized, and the voiceless. We work with community health workers to ensure communities of color have culturally competent information in their language of choice so that they are able to have the tools necessary to take control of their own health. We provide safety and know-your-rights trainings to people who work in high-risk industries to ensure they are safe doing their jobs. We help communities mobilize to strengthen their resources and networks in preparation for climate change-related disasters. We help patients who are on the move to find a doctor or needed health services at their next destination. We advocate for migrant and refugee health. Simply put, we are a force for health justice.

MCN is an organization with more than 10,000 constituents, serving as a professional home for clinicians serving migrants and other underserved populations. To that end, MCN engages in research, develops population-specific resources, advocates for patients and clinicians, engages outside partners, and runs programs that support clinical care on the frontline of health. Our work is overseen by an international board of directors comprised of frontline clinicians, researchers, policy makers, and academics with experience in and commitment to health justice. MCN’s support, technical assistance, and professional development to clinicians working in clinics other organizations serving migrants and other special populations improves quality health care that increases access and reduces disparities.

The ability to create solutions in the midst of a constantly changing environment requires a strong sense of mission, purpose, and direction. With a strong guiding structure, MCN is able to remain flexible and nimble. Since 2006, MCN has committed itself to an annual organizational development process involving all staff. The result is a thought-through, planned process that best positions MCN to become significantly more effective in its ability to plan, execute, respond to change, and ultimately meet its mission. At an annual staff retreat goals and guidelines are defined for the year. In the last two years, this process has resulted in an updated HIPAA-compliant IT infrastructure in order to simplify and streamline all of evaluation efforts, reporting, data management, and program components.

MCN also relies on our 10,000-person-strong clinical network to signal emerging issues, shifting barriers, and needed resources and assistance. MCN listens to our clinician community via webinar participants’ feedback forms, questions, comments, and suggestions; interviews with clinicians in the field; surveys and polls on hot-button issues; participation and leadership roles in regional and national conferences, boards, and committees related to migrant needs; and through direct communication with patients via Health Network. These efforts assure that we are addressing the most needed concerns among the clinicians who are working with patients every day.

MCN has over 35 years of experience working with clinicians and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) through extensive technical assistance and training. Technical assistance provided through MCN affords many of the key elements needed to foster knowledge, creative solutions, and improved care. Clinically relevant information is disseminated via a number of sources including MCN’s quarterly clinical publication Streamline, workshops at conferences, and trainings on-site at clinics and health departments, via MCN’s website, and through our partners.

We have expanded our program reach to include environmental and occupational health training and outreach with hard-to-reach immigrant workers in industries like dairy and poultry processing. We continually create educational material that is available for free, including our very popular comic books on various health and safety topics. Our bridge case management has expanded significantly, now reaching people in 114 countries and enrolling new clinics and patients every day. Our success rates with TB treatment completion are especially impressive. Health Network has consistently posted a completion rate above 84% for patients who are moving, approaching the US non-mobile completion rate of 87%.

The following figures, comprised of data from 2018, illustrate the extent of MCN’s reach:
- 94,142 technical assistance encounters for expertise, services, and technical support
- Provided technical assistance in 833 locations around the world
- 29 trainings held
- 500 clinicians trained
- A total of 1764 continuing education hours
- 265,368 unique visitors to our website
- 25% increase in blog subscribers
- 25 full-time and 8 part-time staff
- 15 bilingual staff
- $95,525 received from donors, primarily from crowdfunding campaigns

While we are extremely proud of what we have accomplished and of the fact that each year we are more successful than the last, there are still things we would like to accomplish. Most importantly, we would like migration to no longer be an impediment to receiving consistent, high quality, health care. We are taking strides to make this dream a reality but we still have a long way to go.