Association of Clinicians for the Underserved Honors Student for ‘Going Above and Beyond’

Brandon Moritz was honored by the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved for his extensive efforts in caring for underserved populations

Even before he considered becoming a physician, Brandon Moritz was caring and advocating for underserved populations, a commitment that has only deepened during his time as a medical student at the OU College of Medicine. That dedication recently garnered national attention when he was honored by the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved with its Health Professional in Training Award.

Moritz, a member of the Class of 2023, was selected for the honor among health profession students from numerous disciplines around the nation. His efforts perfectly fit the award criteria of “going above and beyond” to address the healthcare needs of underserved populations.

“To encounter a student leader who has the gift of leadership — the ability to truly light up a room with inspiration and to transform ideas into engagement — is rare,” said OU College of Medicine Executive Director for Academic Affairs Lin Goldston, MHA, who nominated Moritz for the award. “Brandon has never let the global COVID-19 pandemic slow him down. He has forged creative ways to provide access to care and improve health among the underserved population in Oklahoma City, and he helped lead the mobilization of hundreds of student volunteers to organize COVID-19 vaccine clinics in Oklahoma. His contributions to caring for underserved populations are vast and immeasurable.”

Moritz, who grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, volunteered in a variety of projects from an early age. His parents laid the foundation for serving others, he said, and he was exposed to activities in which volunteers cared for the physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and social needs of others. During his college years, he volunteered with Service Over Self, an organization providing home renovation and reconstruction in Memphis inner-city communities, and for several months he served in rural areas of Haiti through mobile outreach clinics with the organization Mission of Hope.

“It was in Haiti that I solidified my desire to become a doctor and began envisioning my career as serving marginalized communities that historically have had little access to care,” Moritz said.

Brandon Moritz prepares to give a COVID-19 vaccination. He was among the student leaders for vaccine clinics.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Arkansas, Moritz moved to Philadelphia, where he worked for Esperanza Health Center, a federally qualified health center providing primary care services in a primarily underserved, Spanish-speaking community. Because of the clinic’s location in an area considered a “regional opioid epicenter,” that work also introduced him to the ravages of the opioid crisis.

Once he was accepted into the OU College of Medicine, Moritz discovered new outlets for caring for underserved populations. In his first year, he was named president of the OU Community Health Alliance (OUCHA), which serves the uninsured and underinsured populations of Oklahoma City while also creating an educational experience for students.

Medical students, along with many of their peers in other colleges at the OU Health Sciences Center, care for patients at about 15 local charitable clinics. OUCHA carries out many other initiatives, including the Bridges to Access Conference, which focuses on issues concerning access to care in underserved populations, as well as the Stop the Bleed program, in which students train the community on how to use tourniquets and pack wounds in the case of a severe injury. Other activities take students into local elementary schools and community organizations to provide preventive health information.

Medical student Brandon Moritz looks in a patient’s ear at Crossings Community Clinic in Oklahoma City.

“It’s been really life-giving work,” Moritz said. “That’s something one of my mentors told me before I started medical school — to pursue the part of medicine that fills you up and reminds you of why you pursued medicine in the first place. One of the greatest needs in our country is primary care, especially in communities that have very few doctors and resources.”

Moritz has developed an additional partnership with Crossings Community Clinic in Oklahoma City, where he came on staff before he began medical school. He developed a gap year internship for pre-med and pre-health students to gain experience before they begin their health profession education. The program, now in its third year, is paying off — interns from the first two years are being admitted to medical school. He also worked with the clinic staff to design a chronic disease management program focusing primarily on patients with hypertension and diabetes. As part of that work, he helped to hire a social worker to provide additional resources to patients. In addition, he wrote grants that allowed the clinic to purchase colposcopy equipment for women’s health and a spirometer to assess lung function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

This year, Moritz began serving as a Graduate Research Assistant for both OU College of Medicine Academic Affairs and the Office of Interdisciplinary Programs at the OU Health Sciences Center. As part of that role, he is conducting a study to gather data about whether student involvement with underserved populations influences their eventual career and volunteer decisions. He will be following the Classes of 2025, 2026 and 2027 over the long term, and future classes may be added as well.

Another element of Moritz’s recognition by the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved was his efforts to organize COVID-19 vaccine clinics and administer vaccines, both on campus and in the community. As a volunteer coordinator and member of the COVID-19 vaccine clinic leadership team, he facilitated trainings on how to give injections, coordinated student volunteer efforts, worked long hours at each clinic, and provided analysis of vaccine clinic data for internal use, reports and posters.

With a little over a year left in his undergraduate medical education, Moritz is planning for his future. He hopes to match into a combined residency of internal medicine/ pediatrics and join a program with a major emphasis on caring for underserved communities. Ultimately, he sees his career at the intersection of clinical care, conducting research, and educating the next generation of physicians about the importance of caring for those who historically have been overlooked and underserved.

“I’m a major proponent of an asset-based approach — looking inside a community to see the talents and resources that are already there, then working alongside them to create change from the inside out. That is a more sustainable approach than pouring money in from the outside or telling a community what they need,” he said.

“These communities are filled with incredibly smart and gifted people who have been marginalized and, because of that, don’t have the same resources and access to healthcare that other communities do. I am a far better person for having been given the opportunity to listen and learn from them. They’re my neighbors and are equally deserving of having access to the resources and services that can help them lead a fulfilling and healthy life. Their well-being is my well-being.”