Major Todd Schaffer, MC (MD ’02), Commander 814th Medical Company, North Dakota Army National Guard in Iraq

From Pago Pago to Maine, over 3,800 health care heroes serve on the front lines to bring essential medical care to four million people in underserved communities that span the United States and its territories. These caring health professionals practice in interdisciplinary teams where the need is greatest — inner cities, small towns, mountain villages and migrant communities.

The National Health Service Corps (NHSC) comprises a dedicated group of primary health care clinicians who choose to work where others will not: America’s frontier, rural and urban communities. NHSC clinicians provide quality health care to all Americans, regardless of their ability to pay. In exchange for a two-year service commitment, the NHSC will pay clinicians up to $50,000 to repay their outstanding qualifying student loans. Participants also receive a salary and benefits from their NHSC-approved community employers.

Two physicians who are serving on the home front in North Dakota are Amit Kulkarni, MD, in Bottineau and Todd Schaffer, MD ’02, in Carrington.

They have answered the call of national service and the call of family.

Kulkarni is an NHSC Scholar who chose to practice in Bottineau so he could be close to his wife’s parents and his son’s grandparents in Winkler, Manitoba, an hour-and-a-half drive from Bottineau. Born in Pune, Maharashtra, India, he is a 2004 graduate of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

“For us, it has been huge,” explained Joan Mortensen, clinic manager for St. Andrew’s Health Center in Bottineau, when asked to describe the effect of the NHSC program. “Dr. Kulkarni has developed a good practice and is highly respected in the community.”

“I wanted to practice in an underserved area that had a wide variety of patients,” said Dr. Kulkarni. “The Bottineau schools are great for my son, and I enjoy my work.”