Photo: Bryan Goodchild
Rhea Kukkal and Jenna Patel, fourth-year medical students in the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, have spent their final year at UMass Chan Medical School creating a handbook for patients who have recently arrived in the country to aid them in accessing and navigating the health care system in the Worcester area. Their project, Bridging the Gap, was one of 11 funded by a 2025 Remillard Family Community Service Fund grant supporting projects that address social determinants of health, equity and affordable access to care.
“The genesis of the handbook started on our first day at UMass Chan and it’s been forming in the background of our interactions with the Worcester community ever since,” Kukkal said.
The best friends and collaborators have been roommates throughout medical school. Their project arose from a brainstorming session on their couch during which they filled a whiteboard with ideas about how they could give back to the Worcester patient population.
The result of the brainstorming session was the Bridging the Gap handbook, created to help immigrants navigate the health care system in Worcester through step-by-step instructions and visual aids. The project was inspired by their experiences at the Worcester Family Health Center as part of a third-year longitudinal clinical rotation.
Kukkal and Patel are currently in the process of surveying patients and providers at the Family Health Center of Worcester to learn about the most challenging barriers patients face in following through with providers’ recommendations.
“We realize that primary care physicians, community health workers and local organizations do a lot of patient navigation, so we are hoping this handbook will augment their efforts and further empower patients to participate in their health care,” Patel said.
They are also launching a pilot program with a group of patients at the Family Health Center to receive feedback before the handbook is finalized.
Patel and Kukkal’s mentor, Sara Casey, DO, assistant professor of family medicine & community health and assistant education director at Family Health Center of Worcester, lauded the students for their dedication to serving underserved populations, their impact at the Family Health Center of Worcester and their mission to address social determinants of health and barriers to care.
“This project will really have a positive impact on the health of our patients, making it easier for patients to get what they need, so that it’s not overwhelming when they are accessing care in the Worcester area,” Dr. Casey said.
Patel and Kukkal met during their undergraduate days as fellow New England transplants at Washington University in St. Louis and have strengthened their friendship during their time at UMass Chan, including being active outdoors and traveling abroad together. Kukkal, originally from Portland, Oregon, grew up in Acton and earned her undergraduate degree in neuroscience and English literature; Patel is from Providence and earned her undergraduate degree in biology.
With Match Day approaching on Friday, March 20, the good friends will find out if their paths will finally diverge and where their professional careers will begin—Patel is looking to match into OB/GYN and Kukkal into internal medicine.
