Medicine Man: The Stan Brock Story

Cowboy, naturalist, bush pilot, zoologist, actor, philanthropist, campaigner extraordinaire. A documentary adventure following a unique man who gave up everything to bring free access health services to America.

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Looking forward to our next  #CommunityScreening of @medicinemanstanbrock to be held at @stbonaventureuniversity on Tuesday 21st April 2026! 6pm film start with panel discussion from 7:30. 3261 West State Road, St. Bonaventure, NY 14778

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#throwback to this #CNNHero Stan segment produced back in 2012. A one minute summary of his good works until that time, including international 'Third World' efforts in India and airborne operations to aid #epidemic-challenged #Haiti, to eventual focus on 'Third World' America via @remoteareamedical clinics, coast to coast. Revisit at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eZjgCNJPPw #thirdworldmedicine #thirdworldinthefirstworld

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Read more about this early Stan/RAM mission to Mexico in 1991 in this Marvin West article published in MexConnect: https://www.mexconnect.com/articles/4117-amazing-medical-mission-to-mexico/

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#TennesseeHealthcareConference screening Sept '25 #UniversityofChatanooga TN campus, 5pm. Panelists: Wendell Potter #whistleblower & President of #healthanddemocracy, Andre Stackhouse, Ex Director of #WholeWashington & Jeff Eastman CEO of #remoteareamedical. 

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We're pleased that a #medicinemanstanbrock community screening was part of the 2025 Tennessee Health Care Conference in #Chatanooga in September '25 . #THCC is a statewide, non-partisan, non-profit health care advocacy organization founded in 1989 and is dedicated to promoting access to affordable, quality, and equitable health care for ALL Tennesseans. The Campaign focuses on three key areas: public education, legislative and administrative advocacy, and direct assistance. This year's Conference theme is “Healthy Communities: Social Drivers of Health and Health Systems” and will feature engagement across sessions on advocacy, policy solutions, and innovative strategies for improving health outcomes. .

#CommunityScreening#Tennessee#Healthcare#advocacy

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Welcome to a makeover! This Tumblr now supports #MedicineManCommunityScreenings, a new platform supporting community film screenings of @medicinemanstanbrockstory our documentary adventure which follows a unique man who gave up everything to make #freehealthcare available for all. We've already run quite a few of these screenings across the US and elsewhere, in person & online.

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A Year of Film Fests .... and Awards!

A year of Film Fests! Wow ... too long ... well over a year since our last blog post with word of our drive-in US premiere in Tennessee. Yes, we have been busy!

So let’s catch you up.

Numerous awards since that time, from our Jury Prize at the San Luis Obispo Int’l Film Fest, and our Best Feature Doc at Footcandle Film Festival then our Best Feature Doc prize at SCAD Savannah. And numerous "Human Spirit" accolades along the way have included the prize at Chagrin Indie in Ohio. We just had word! 

[Photo] Director Paul Angell celebrating the Chagrin award with Associate Producer Alex Zdan!

Looking forward to 2022 and screenings in Appalachia. We want to help sort out the endemic USA healthcare disparity Stan set out to solve!

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MedMan movie gets a drive-in World Premiere as part of 51st NashFest!

It’s official! Medicine Man: The Stan Brock Story - our movie about Tennessee-based Remote Area Medical founder Stan Brock - has been selected for Nashville Film Festival 2020! 

It’s currently available to watch ANYWHERE in the USA through October 7th as part of #NashFest and you can pre-book a screening now by visiting: https://tinyurl.com/y27kh7d6

Are you based in East or Central Tennessee? Make sure to come along for the movie's OFFICIAL LIVE PREMIERE on the evening of Tuesday, October 6th at #Maryville TN's historic Parkway Drive-in! https://www.parkwaydrivein.com. Most film festivals are staying virtual, so this will be something special. And RAM volunteers will be coming down to add huge volunteer spirit to this exclusive event!

FREE drive-in premiere tickets are available from: https://tinyurl.com/y2og26mw. And all proceeds from voluntary donations on the night will benefit #RAM. The screening will begin 40 minutes after sunset, approx 8pm. Free admission from 7pm.

Further event information from: https://www.ramusa.org/medicineman, also https://www.parkwaydrivein.com/movie-listings

This film has been a long time coming, so from the MedMan film team, just massive kudos / thanks to you all for your faith and support these many years! Thanks to everyone who's rooted for us! ❤️🙏

This film is a reminder about the unifying power of volunteerism. A bright light in darker days. Please share this link if you can: https://www.facebook.com/404055059653490/posts/3638313392894291

https://nashvillefilmfestival.org/

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Adm. Brett Giroir says mask-wearing in public is 'absolutely essential.'

"Adm. Brett Giroir, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, called mask-wearing in public, which has been met with resistance in some U.S. states, 'absolutely essential.' 

This comes as Florida hit a grim milestone Sunday, shattering the national record for a state’s largest single-day increase in positive cases.

RAM and Stan supporters will remember Giroir for his visit to RAM's 2018 Durant, Oklahoma clinic at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, with Rear Admiral Joan Hunter and Surgeon General Jerome Adams. 

Giroir, the assistant secretary at the Health and Human Services Department, told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that without masks, “we will not get control of the virus." (www.huffpost.com/entry/united-states-coronavirus-florida_n_5f0be055c5b6480493d2071e).

Revisit Giroir’s RAM Oklahoma visit at KXII Texoma: https://www.kxii.com/content/news/US-Surgeon-General-Asst-Sec-for-Health-meet-with-patients-in-Durant-484427591.html. 

Photos courtesy of KXII and Kay Sisco

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Stan T-shirt unveiled at Chilhowee Park clinic!

At the recent Chilhowee Park clinic, RAM unveiled a new T-shirt design which features Stan flying his iconic C-47 (aka DC-3 or Dakota). 

Kay Sisco was on the scene to get pictures of Sandra Sacco modelling the shirt, which was designed by Aaron Hinds, a member of the development team at RAM. Sandra is also a RAM volunteer. It includes Stan’s important words “Never Forget the Mission.” More on this in our latest blog!

The clinic in Knoxville kicked off 2020 (Jan. 31st - Feb. 2nd) and was RAM’s Expedition number 1080. 1534 patients were served and 1267 volunteers were involved during three days in the Jacob Building.

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Buster and Robert and Kay

Our casual correspondent Kay Sisco, core RAM volunteer, is back with a story from this weekend’s East Ridge TN 2019 clinic. Actually, it’s more of an update since the subject of her story is Buster, a service chihuahua who aids Robert, who has been turning up at Tennessee RAM clinics for years. Kay profiled the pair for us back in 2016.

Robert is prone to seizures, so he’s got Buster to warn him if a fit is coming … but also to jar him to attention if he’s having one. Kay first encountered Buster, nestled on Robert’s chest, at the 2016 Cookeville clinic. At that time, Buster wasn’t quite a year old - Robert usually gets his dogs while they’re very young. He’s not Robert’s first service chihuahua. Now he’s 4 1/2 and both Buster and Robert are now RAM volunteers! In fact they helped Kay set up at East Ridge on Friday!

Of course as in 2016, Kay  (who took these photos and who’s a real dog lover BTW) got in her selfie with Buster too! 

She also took these photos of Buster in dental with Robert, who’s wearing his Buster pouch and holding his pink form ...  

This one of Theo, who’s learning to be a therapy dog ...

And finally, it’s the end of the day on Saturday - which was a long, tiring day for Buster! 

Goodbye y’all from Camp Jordan Arena! RAM’s next scheduled clinic is on December 6th in Suitland, Maryland at Beltway Church of Christ. 

And Happy Thanksgiving!

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The U.S. Rural Hospital Closure Crisis

It’s now known as “The rural hospital closure crisis”. On a steady closure trend even since getting national media headlines in 2017, the situation has become increasingly dire. According a 2018 report from the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program, of the 26 states that have seen at least one rural hospital close since 2010, those with the most closures are located in the South.

“Fourteen hospitals in Texas have closed since 2010, the most of any state. Tennessee has seen the second-most closures, with eight hospitals closing since 2010. In third place is Georgia with six closures, followed by Alabama, Mississippi and North Carolina, which have each seen five hospitals close over the past eight years.”

The Cecil Sheps Centre for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina have issued a state-by-state breakdown of 108 rural hospital closures in 26 states, from Maine to California. The Sheps Center request people write in with information about new closures. https://www.shepscenter.unc.edu/programs-projects/rural-health/rural-hospital-closures/.

This is up from 98 in February 2019, as reported by the National Rural Health Association (https://www.ruralhealthweb.org/blogs/ruralhealthvoices/february-2019/rural-hospital-closures-rise-to-ninety-seven) which notes 700 more hospitals are at risk and with this risk, rural economies are as well:

“In rural areas, health care is so much more than what happens within the walls of a hospital or facility. Health care is the center of the rural economy, creating jobs and opportunities for residents, encouraging families to move to a county, and incentivizing businesses to open their doors. Without a rural hospital, a community will crumble. The most recent hospital closures will leave communities across the country without local care and will devastate rural economies nationwide.”

The NRHA has asked members of Congress to #SaveRural Hospitals and proposed H.R.3225 - Save Rural Hospitals Act - in 2015.

Remote Area Medical will do its part this weekend (August 3-4, 2019) to help address the increasing shortfall in rural care options when it partners up with the Making a Difference Foundation on a medical “mission” to Paonia, Colorado at #EnergyTech. Paonia is in western Colorado and has a population of 1,365 residents. The median household income is $37,330. Fourteen percent of the residents of Paonia live in poverty and 15.3% have no health insurance. There is one primary physician for every 1,243 patients and one dentist for every 1,291 patients.

https://allevents.in/paonia/2019-paonia-co-free-ram-clinic/200017313069413

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Chris Hall - photos from Wise!

Stan’s gone but Chris Hall isn’t. And they go back together quite a long time.  RAM’s COO was recently featured in the Bristol Herald Courier ahead of the 2019 Wise Expedition starting soon - the big number 20! “When Chris Hall was 13 years old, his father encouraged him to volunteer at a Remote Area Medical clinic … At a clinic in a remote part of Tennessee, Hall recalls seeing someone get a pair of glasses for the first time.” #WarmingUpForWise20! See the Herald Courier feature at: https://tinyurl.com/y2366x44

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Mountain Empire Airport Clinic 2018 Remembered

We’re fast approaching RAM’s 2019 clinic in Smyth County, Virginia, at Mountain Empire Airport this weekend, May 17-19. Much has changed since last year’s 'Expedition' - neither Stan Brock nor RAM Virginia are with us any longer, although the pioneering spirits of both live on. Stan’s imprint forever remains on RAM at large and former RAM VA head Vicki Weiss continues to volunteer for VOSH/International as well as maintain her own practice Weiss Eyes, Fluvanna Optometrists (with former RAMVA board member and husband Doug Weiss).

The 2018 RAM Smyth County clinic served over 764 patients and as many or more are expected this year. They will come from Smyth and many surrounding counties, from throughout Virginia and from other states. According to a WJHL​ Channel 11 report, roughly 11% of the population of Smyth County do not have health insurance.

Here's our Tumblr tribute to the 2018 Smyth County RAM clinic in pictures, starting off with one of Stan with Vicki and Doug.

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RAM Clinic 1000 in Chilhowee Park!

In early February, Remote Area Medical hosted its 1000th clinic at the Jacob Building in Knoxville’s Chilhowee Park. 

Core RAM volunteer Kay Sisco was on the scene for Number 1000. She visited the Stan Brock memorabilia exhibition which ran in the building at the same time, which continued celebration of his life well lived - Stan died at the very end of August 2018. The exhibition featured a wide variety of items, including Stan’s first RAM logo drawings, photos from RAM Expedition Number 1 (Mexico) and much more! This was also 2019 Clinic #1.

So, photo essay time! Take it away, Kay ...

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Across state lines in Ohio!

Good things in Ohio! In June we mentioned that the Ohio House had passed legislation to allow certain out-of-state licensed healthcare professionals to provide healthcare services on voluntary basis - during a charitable event - without obtaining a permanent Ohio license to do so. Stan Brock was very excited about this. At that time, and referring to RAM’s April Ohio clinic, Rep. John Patterson (D-Jefferson) and Sarah LaTourette (R-Chesterland) announced: 

“HB 541 will help temporary clinics, like our recent effort in Ashtabula, to attract healthcare professionals outside our state by waiving their license fees during their period of voluntary service.”

RAM’s Ashtabula clinic served 953 in 2018 and aims to return in 2019. House Bill 541 passed out of committee unanimously and then through both chambers unanimously, with good bi-partisan support. 541 was finalized just over two weeks ago and passed on Thursday December 13th. And by clearing the state legislature this now heads to the governor’s desk!  

Patterson added that out-of-state professionals can now practice in Ohio at a volunteer clinic and operate under Ohio’s health laws without paying a fee for an Ohio license. 

“The theory was if we could waive those fees we could attract more providers.”

Ashtabula County Medical Center (ACMC), which celebrates its 115th anniversary next year and helped organize the April clinic which took place in Ashtabula Towne Square, announced: 

“We would have been able to serve many more patients had we been able to recruit the physicians, nurses, physician assistants and nurse practitioners from outside of Ohio.”

With this news comes word that two more RAM free clinics are now being planned in addition to Ashtabula - one in Youngstown and another in the Dayton area.

According to Claims Journal, Ohio is only the fourth state to allow practitioners to cross state lines - Tennessee was the first in 1995 when its legislature passed the Volunteer Healthcare Service Act, thanks in great part to Stan’s campaign efforts. While much later campaigning for the Healthier Act, an initiative organized in collaboration with Rep. John J. Duncan Jr. (R-Knoxville), Stan said: “We have no problem at all getting volunteers … if they are allowed to cross state lines.”

US doctors sit the same national exams but the practice of medicine across state lines has been beset by multiple issues despite a number of organized schemes such as the AMA’s Interstate Medical Licensure Compact. This has not featured robust uptake thus far. And to confuse things further, there is a different compact for dentistry which Stan pushed for: the Coalition for Modernizing Dental Licensure (https://www.dentallicensure.org/en) was founded by the American Dental Association, the American Dental Education Association and the American Student Dental Association. For vision it is even more complicated, with ophthalmologists and optometrists organized through other associations.

The AMA last year claimed that cross-state licensing process via the IMLC was live in 8 states (https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/digital/cross-state-licensing-process-now-live-8-states) but states such as Ohio (via HB 541) have adopted their own legislation to more effectively expedite volunteering across state lines. Whereas the IMLC seems to have become bogged down among several reform models and lack of consensus, according to 'The Traveling Doctor: Medical Licensure Across State Lines’,  a seminal article written by Brittany La Couture for American Action Forum. (https://www.americanactionforum.org/insight/the-traveling-doctor-medical-licensure-across-state-lines).

The strength of state medical boards and their pull for share of fee-based profits looks to have forced ad hoc state bills for volunteer events (like Ohio, or Tennessee in 1995, Illinois, or in California two years ago) and now more recently Healthier Act candidacy. In the case of the latter, there’s now grant money for states which pass laws allowing out-of-state health care providers to offer services on a volunteer basis.  

***

NB: On December 21, 2018 Ohio Governor John Kasich signed Sub H.B. 541 (Patterson, LaTourette) into law. This was one among 14 bills. See: https://governor.ohio.gov/Media-Room/Press-Releases/articleid/1063/kasich-acts-on-14-bills

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LOOKING BACK ON RAM WISE 2018 • by Heather Canady Rhodes

Wise County, VA - Very early Thursday morning starts off just like every other morning in coal country.  People going about their normal blue collar lives, getting ready for work in the coal mines just like their fathers and grandfathers have done for years. Everyone except a couple of dozen families. These families are setting up tents to camp in for the weekend at Wise Co. Fairgrounds. Why you ask… Remote Area Medical is holding its 19th annual clinic this weekend. These families know to makes sure to get there early for the free medical dental and vision care that RAM and the Health wagon provides.  Only a specified number of patients will receive the care they so desperately need.

THURSDAY 10 AM.  Trucks start rolling into town. These trucks are filled with all the equipment and supplies that are needed for the clinic. Volunteers are there to help set up a 40 chair dental clinic, a 7 lane vision clinic and a 45-50 bed medical clinic. Volunteers work nonstop until each and every station is perfect and ready for patients. They finally finish setting up about 5pm.

They have taken a small county fairground and turned it into a fully functioning clinic, complete with cardiovascular services, pulmonary services, vaccinations, women's health, plastic surgery, and much more. They have worked hard but know the real work has yet to be done. The real work will start at 5 am for hundreds of volunteers.

FRIDAY 5AM. Clinic Day 1 rolls around and volunteers start showing up by the car full, still rubbing the sleep out of their eyes, coffee in hand, and eager to start the day. Volunteers are assigned to each department of the clinic, everything from trash pick up to patient check out. There is no unimportant job at s RAM clinic. Each and every volunteer provides a unique service the clinic requires to run smoothly.

FRIDAY 6AM. The fairgrounds gates are opened by Stan Brock and numbers start to be called. One by one patients are escorted to registration and then to triage to have some vitals taken and blood sugar levels checked. From triage they head to the services they need. The clinic only shuts down after all the patients have been seen.

The same scene repeats itself for the next 2 days. Roughly 1500 people are seen and over $400,000 worth of care is given, all for no charge.

SUNDAY, RAM Wise Day 3. Looking around the fairgrounds bustling with patients you can help but wonder why these people have waited all night in long lines all day for care. These are our friends, family members and neighbors. They are working people; surely they can get to s doctor or a dentist or an optometrist.  Perhaps they can but the cost not covered by insurance is so high that most simply can’t afford to. It becomes a choice between medication and paying the light bill or buying groceries for the week.  These are everyday people just like you and me.

Sunday evening rolls around and it’s time to go. The trucks pack back up and head to Knoxville where they will resupply for the next town in need. As the Wise County Fairgrounds clear off, you’d never know what has gone on this past weekend in a small quiet town in Appalachia, Virginia.

Heather Rhodes, author of this blog and pictured above with ‘Medicine Man: The Stan Brock Story’ Director Paul Angell and DOP Tom Goudsmit at Wise, is RAM Virginia’s On-site Volunteer Coordinator, and was part of the Med Man Virginia task force for our Tri-State shoot. Her assistance was invaluable. Thanks also to RAMVA’s Candy Hall for the dental photos used above, which she took at Wise, and to Matthew Sutherland for the aerial image taken over the County Fairgrounds site.