When you’re a truck driver, living a healthy lifestyle can be challenging. Sitting for long periods, often eating out, and not having regular health checkups can lead to serious health problems.  

Medical students from the Northern Medical Program are changing this. The students set up pop-up clinics at truck stops to check truckers’ blood pressure, sugar levels and more. In return, students receive real-life, hands-on medical experience. And, according to the anonymous community member who contributed this innovative solution to the Rural Coordination Centre of British Columbia’s (RCCbc) rural health Innovations Inventory, the students quite likely save truckers’ lives with their preventive interventions.  

“They have quite a number [of medical students] that say, ‘You need to see somebody soon—your blood pressure’s high, your sugar levels are out of balance’ … otherwise, this isn’t happening,” said the community member. “[The students are] learning at the same time [that] they’re treating a demographic of population that can use that kind of service. That’s beautiful for a university to do that.” 

We couldn’t agree more! Congratulations to the Northern Medical Program for an ingenious intervention that meets truckers where they’re at—in more ways than one.  

Would you like to find a rural health innovation that improves health and wellness in your community? If you’d like to share an Innovation that could help other rural communities, get in touch with our Innovation Concierge, Tracey DeLeeuw, at [email protected].