Community Outreach
Over the past six decades, the Watson Clinic Foundation has led meaningful efforts that have altered the level of wellness throughout our community and beyond, including:
- Free community health screenings. Early detection is the first line of defense against our most common and threatening diseases. From blood pressure checks and body fat analysis to screenings of breast, skin and prostate cancers, the Foundation has provided community members with a series of health screenings performed by highly trained physicians and medical providers.
- Partnerships with local organizations. By working in collaboration with partner agencies, the Foundation can reach outside the walls of Watson Clinic facilities and truly impact the lives of those who are most in need. These projects have included our donation of vehicles to Volunteers in Service to the Elderly (VISTE). This gesture empowered the organization to better serve meals and other essentials to homebound elderly residents in our community. The Foundation also assisted in launching the “9-1-1” service in Polk County. Working with American pacemaker manufacturers, the Foundation established 37 charitable pacemaker banks in 24 third world nations, eventually saving lives by implanting 5,000 devices. Our organization also worked with state legislators to provide cardiac defibrillators in ambulances and other emergency vehicles statewide and expanded this donation of defibrillators to local police departments and county sports complexes through partnerships with local rotary clubs and community leaders.
- Speaker’s Bureau. The Foundation has sent highly qualified physicians and medical providers to local organizations and workplaces to discuss topics related to general wellness and disease prevention.
- Research. The Foundation has helped to fund the promising medical research of the past half century, mostly in conjunction with the Watson Clinic Center for Research. We’ve also supported important local studies that have proven instructive on a national level, including the treatment-related cognitive impairments experienced by local breast cancer patients and the survival impact after treatment among Polk County’s elderly population.
- Scholarships. In our efforts to nurture the medical talents and breakthroughs of tomorrow, the Foundation has granted a series of scholarships to young medical and nursing professionals in our community as they’ve pursued degrees in the healthcare field.
- Arts in Medicine. This continuing program, housed on the second floor of the Watson Clinic Cancer & Research Center, patients and their caregivers engage in the creative arts. These activities are more conducive to healing and have been shown to improve treatment outcomes. Click here to learn more about this exciting program.