Little Medical School in Hampton offers hope for health care future

If the growing need for health care professionals has you concerned, Dr. Kirsten Lin is working on a solution.

The McCandless physician is the owner of Little Medical School of Greater Pittsburgh, with its office in the same building as her family practice on Route 8 in Hampton. Focusing on children starting at age 4, her franchise offers educational programming throughout the region.

“Kids who may already have an interest in the medical field or kids who may never have thought about the medical field before are learning about it,” she said. “And hopefully it inspires them to continue learning more and perhaps have a medical career in the future.”

A key to the approach of Little Medical School, founded by a St. Louis-area doctor in 2010, is providing interactive experiences for participants. For instance, they get to play surgeon by “operating” on a simulated gallbladder, or they learn about an essential part of dentistry by filling a model tooth’s cavity.

While doing so, the youngsters get to wear lab coats, and they’re issued their very own stethoscopes that they can take home.

“I think what’s great about this is, it’s not PowerPoint slides. It’s hands-on activities, role play, different things like that,” Lin said. “It’s fun for the instructor and it’s fun for the kids.”

For Heart Heath Awareness Month in February, Little Medical School conducted a “Valentine’s Pop-Up” at the Hampton Community Center, during which students learned basics about the vital blood-pumping muscle, built their own model hearts and received stress balls with an explanation of how they can help matters. And, given the occasion and topic, they took some time to make appropriately shaped valentines.

Angela Singh, who manages the franchise’s instructor base, taught the program. Also lending support were team members Amanda Hall, operations manager, and Jennifer Clowser, who manages curriculum and supplies.

“We work really well together, all three of us, and then of course, Kirsten,” Hall said. “She wanted to expose kids to health care because she loves it.”

A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine — North Allegheny High School, too — Lin decided that she would like to share what she’d learned.

“About five years ago, I had this bright idea about teaching medical-related classes to young kids in some kind of way to make it engaging for them,” she said. “As I started to do some research on it, I found out that there was already something out there like that, which was this Little Medical School franchise. And so then I started to get involved as an instructor.”

Eventually, she had the opportunity to purchase the franchise, although the timing could have been better.

“Believe it or not, in March of 2020, I took over,” Lin said, just as the covid-19 pandemic was taking hold. “It was a little bit rough at first. We kind of pivoted and did some online things. And then once things started opening up, we had a lot more community engagement.”

Little Medical School of Greater Pittsburgh lives up to its name by offering classes and camps in a wide geographical variety of communities and venues, including Pine Community Center, Lauri Ann West Community Center in Fox Chapel and locations in the South Hills.

The franchise also works with educational institutions such as Sewickley Academy, Marzolf Primary School in Shaler, Propel Schools of Pittsburgh and Midland-based Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School.

Passavant Hospital Foundation has sponsored Teen Medical classes in North Allegheny School District, and Highmark Whole Care provides funding for programs at Urban Academy of Greater Pittsburgh Charter School and Mt. Ararat Community Center in Highland Park.

Instructors are trained in the Little Medical School curriculum, and they have background checks and clearances. Some are practicing medical providers, but others are invited to give it a try.

“It is nice for elementary education teachers, because they’re teaching. They’re getting in front of children,” Hall said as an example. “We’re always looking for new people. The more people we have, we can offer it at more places.”

Also, teenagers and young adults are invited to contribute as volunteers and paid instructor assistants.

Whoever is giving the lessons, Hall said, the goal is to demonstrate the ability of participants to proceed toward a medical field:

“You can do this.”

For more information, visit littlemedicalschool.com/pgh.