title: A unique faith-based medical organization: the Christian Medical Fellowship.
abstract: The Association of American Medical Colleges has challenged medical educators to be role models for the incorporation of faith into the art and practice of medicine. The Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF) is one approach toward accomplishing this goal. CMF is a nonprofit organization that brings health, hope, and healing, to and through the health-care community, providing transformational love locally and internationally. CMFseeks to support the caregiver while serving the underserved. CMF accomplishes this through a three-fold approach: promoting individual faith, community outreach, and international missions. CMF provides a framework to assist health-care providers in meeting their own spiritual needs along with those of their patients. The Christian ethic teaches that Jesus touched and changed lives by showing love and compassion, while meeting physical as well as spiritual needs. The goal of CMF is to do the same. The CMF vision is to replicate CMF's three-fold ministry by fostering the development of independent, self-supporting CMF chapters to serve throughout the USA and the world. CMF plans to develop a fully functioning faith-based Fellowship Program in conjunction with a CMF faith-based clinic and an international hospital. The growth of CMF and the advancement of the educational experiences are a result of many committed, disciplined, and focused individuals motivated by a deep faith in the original vision. We look to the future with anticipation, as we continue to bridge the gap between faith and the science of medicine.
authors.affiliation: Department of ObGyn, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, USA. pschnat@harthosp.org
authors.forename: Peter F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Schnatz
mesh_terms: D002835:Christianity; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003237:Connecticut; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000639:trends*; D005257:Fellowships and Scholarships; D006296:Health Services / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D029181:Spirituality