Reimagining Health
What if healthcare could reach all people where they are, including individuals typically marginalized by the current health system? FCI is proving that when you combine mobile medicine, community-centered design, and emerging technology, you transform health outcomes for the most underserved.
We believe every person deserves to be healthy, safe, and thriving and that those closest to the problem are closest to the solution. This led us to adopt three complementary approaches: (1) Meeting people where they are through mobile medicine, removing geographic and logistical barriers that keep vulnerable populations from care. (2) Involving people most impacted in co-creating solutions while honoring their culture. (3) Leveraging technology to expand capacity, freeing health workers to serve more people with higher quality care. What makes FCI distinctive is our commitment to weaving these existing, proven approaches together. By combining community-centered design, mobile medicine, and strategic technology use, we've created a model that works.
CASE STUDIES
FCI partnered with Akido, a tech-enabled healthcare provider, and HOPICS, a community organization serving unhoused people, to establish an effective and sustainable street medicine program now serving over 5,000 patients, with 1,300+ receiving ongoing care. Akido's technology makes the program financially sustainable, addressing a common challenge for street medicine programs. But technology alone isn't enough. HOPICS brings deep community trust and cultural understanding. FCI acts as the connecting force, ensuring that HOPICS's cultural understanding is incorporated into the service models and practices Akido implements via participatory design and evaluation. The model succeeds because all three ingredients work together.
FCI recognized this wasn't just a good program. It was a replicable model. We're now adapting the model for formerly incarcerated women, in partnership with Akido and Reimagine Freedom. These women face significant healthcare barriers: trauma from past medical experiences, transportation challenges, cost, and numerous other systemic barriers. By bringing providers to trusted community spaces with trauma-informed practices and peer support, we remove barriers while honoring their needs.
These case studies point to a larger truth. What FCI is proving is that healthcare doesn't have to fail vulnerable communities. When you combine the right ingredients and involve communities in the design, healthcare without barriers becomes possible. Street medicine can evolve from small, grant-dependent programs into sustainable, scalable solutions.
We're now expanding this model across California with multiple partnerships, each tailored to its community. For the people facing these challenges every day, this means real healthcare designed for them, and healthier communities as a result.
