Raising Our Community's Knowledge

Raising Our Community's Knowledge (ROCK) is a public health initiative to bridge the gap in knowledge between the medical community in Detroit and the people we serve. http://raisingknowledge.weebly.com/

When compared with Oakland County, Wayne County has double the rate of admission to the hospital for heart failure. This alarming statistic is one of many poor health indicators for Detroit and the surrounding community. ROCK is a group of medical students that sees how the health of Detroit can be greatly improved by simple education about hypertension, diabetes and other prevalent diseases. ROCK first started as a group consisting of John David Purakal, Joe Tsao, and Jakub Sikora-Klak in 2010. Since then, it has expanded to a much larger group of medical students from Detroit with the same common mission: to spread vital medical knowledge to the people of Detroit. ROCK aims to raise health awareness by putting on 30-90 minute interactive presentations by medical students. These interactive presentations have been done in high schools, community centers, and nursing homes by small groups of passionate graduate students in medicine and nutrition. The group is comprised of students from Wayne State University School of Medicine, Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the Nutrition Graduate Program at Wayne State University.