WALTHAM – A
Tufts University School of Medicine student has won the Massachusetts Medical
Society’s 2018 Annual Medical Student History Essay Contest for a paper
entitled
“Little City Halls: Columbia Point and the Community Health Center
Movement in Boston.”
Rajesh K. Reddy, a third-year joint medical degree/master in
public health candidate, won a $1,000 award for the winning essay. The essay
focuses on the work and impact of Drs. H. Jack Geiger and Count Gibson,
who in 1965 established the nation’s first community health center (CHC) at
Columbia Point. The CHC movement in Boston,
the essay describes, “pulled healthcare power away from major hospitals and
city government and brought it down to the local level, giving truth to Geiger’s
vision of healthcare that is ‘of the people, for the people, and by the
people.’”
Mr. Reddy, a Massachusetts native, is a 2012 graduate of Tufts
University, from where he earned a degree in political science. His studies at Tufts included studying the
health system in Iraqi Kurdistan and working as a White House intern in the Domestic
Policy Council. He currently serves as
student representative on the Massachusetts Medical Society’s Committee on
Legislation and, as a member of the American Medical Association, Mr. Reddy sits
on the organization’s student Committee on Global and Public Health.
The essay contest is sponsored by the Medical Society’s Committee
on History and invites essays related to the history of medicine or public
health in Massachusetts since the establishment of the Massachusetts Medical
Society in 1781. Articles are judged on
scholarship, originality, and clarity of expression.
The Massachusetts Medical
Society (MMS) is the statewide professional association for physicians and
medical students, supporting 25,000 members. We are dedicated to educating and
advocating for the physicians of Massachusetts and patients locally and
nationally. A leadership voice in health care, the MMS contributes physician
and patient perspectives to influence health-related legislation at the state
and federal levels, works in support of public health, provides expert advice
on physician practice management, and addresses issues of physician well-being.
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advancing medical knowledge from research to patient care through the New England Journal of Medicine, NEJM
Catalyst, and the NEJM Journal Watch family of specialty publications, and
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