About Us
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Our Mission

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The Illini Medical Screening Society (IMSS) is a registered student organization at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign devoted to preventing disease through the process of medical screening and health care education. IMSS provides the low-income and uninsured citizens of Champaign County a free medical screening service where individuals at risk for heart disease are referred to follow-up at local free health clinics. Our tests are commonly used by physicians to diagnose diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia, all of which can further complicate coronary heart disease and kidney and retinal damage, as well as indicate future risk of heart attack and stroke. All screenings are established and operated by undergraduate pre-health students and supervised by licensed healthcare professionals.

We plan to serve people in all cities within traveling distance of our home location in Champaign-Urbana, IL multiple times a semester. Free health clinics, churches, and other community buildings will provide screening facilities. Ultimately, we hope that our organization will serve as a template for other universities to replicate in their geographic area.

Our Goals

• Screen the local community for major diseases without the need of payment.

• Refer clients with abnormal results to appropriate health facilities to obtain further treatment.

 

• Advocate for local free health clinics.

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• Educate the community about the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and about the symptoms and risks related to diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and other heart related diseases.

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• Educate Pre-Health undergraduate students about basic medical screening tests and associated diseases, and have students observe and understand the financial burdens and lifestyles of the local community in need. 

Why Screenings?

• Close to 22% of Champaign county resides below 100% of the poverty line.

 

• 16% of adults in Champaign county are uninsured, and, further, 1 in 7 are enrolled in Medicaid.

 

• Locally, 8% of individuals have diabetes and nationally more than a third of the US population has a form of pre-diabetes with only 11.6% of adults knowing about it.

• According to the IPLAN program, 8% of the adult population of Illinois have diabetes..
  
  
• As of 2013, 27% of adults in Champaign County were considered obese and 34% were overweight
  
  

According to a study performed by the University of Cambridge, the simulations they performed predicted that with a delay of 3 years in diagnosis and treatment, 22.4 percent of those with type 2 diabetes would experience a cardiovascular disease event, such as stroke or heart bypass surgery. This rose to 25.9 percent with a diagnosis delay of six years. However, if screening and routine care had been implemented, the simulation predicted only 18.4 percent would experience a cardiovascular disease event at 10 years after baseline. The simulated incidence of all-cause mortality was 16.4 percent with a delay of three years and 18.2 percent with a delay of six years, compared to 14.6 percent for screening and treatment.

This means that over 10 years, the model predicts that for people with undiagnosed type 2 diabetes, screening would be associated with a 29% reduction in relative risk of a cardiovascular disease event compared with a delay of six years in diagnosis and treatment. This amounts to a 7.5% reduction in the absolute risk of adverse cardiovascular outcome in this population. The comparable change in all-cause mortality was 20% relative risk and 3.6% absolute risk reduction"

References:

• http://www.c-uphd.org/documents/admin/IPLAN.pdf
• ​https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p0718-diabetes-report.html
• http://www.diabetesincontrol.com
  
• ​http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/early-detection-of-type-2-diabetes-reduces-death-caused-by-cardiovascular-disease/