The lack of understanding between health care providers and health policy-makers is the cause of many a headache. That’s why Fred Redwine, JD, a freshman medical student from Norman, OK, is seeking to bridge the communication gap. A lawyer who spent eight years practicing law prior to beginning medical school, he sees himself as a conduit to bring the clinical side of medicine and health policy together.

“There’s this big disconnect between how the policy is made and what is needed. The doctors don’t know how to make the policy, but they know the medicine. The lawyers don’t know much about the health issues or the clinical needs, but they are the way the law is made,” he says.

Redwine believes that by becoming a practicing clinician in addition to his law experience, he’ll be able to help physicians and policy-makers make sense to one another. By personally seeing the needs of patients, he will be better equipped to tell policy-makers what policies are needed. And, by bringing his law knowledge to the clinical field, he will be able to explain to health care providers how the process of passing health care policies works.

“I feel that if I have firsthand knowledge as a doctor, I’ll be so much more effective in creating the law,” he says.

"a conduit to bring the clinical side of medicine and health policy together"

A member of the Choctaw Indian Tribe, Redwine wants to focus on health policy issues for rural health, specifically those affecting the Native American community. His plan is to work in Indian Health Service facilities and use his clinical experiences there to help create laws or policies that address the medical needs of Native Americans.

Before attending law school at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX, Redwine volunteered as an emergency room orderly at the Hastings Indian Hospital in Tahlequah, OK. After graduating and completing a federal clerkship, he went on to work as an attorney at the National Indian Health Board in Washington, DC, helping to write briefs and legislation, and lobbying on behalf of Native American tribes. Eventually he became Counsel to the Tribal Ambassador to the Chickasaw Nation. Then, after four years as general counsel at a manufacturing company, he decided it was finally time to pursue his medical degree.

Redwine has always wanted to practice both law and medicine, and is glad he ended up at UND because of its strong focus on rural health and Native American issues. The Indians Into Medicine (INMED) program is the reason he came to UND. INMED provides a support system, a way to meet other Native American students, and an exposure to rural health aspects that he values.

He’s also excited about the Rural Opportunities in Medical Education (ROME) program, he says, and is likely going to participate.  Through the ROME program, medical students train and live in rural communities for the majority of their third year, working closely with physician-faculty members of the UND medical school.