The MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine Popoff Clinic is located on Mack Avenue on the east side of Detroit.
Formerly called Vanguard Family Health Care, it has been renamed to honor Dr. Michael Popoff, a doctor of osteopathic medicine who died unexpectedly in April 2015.
“(Popoff) owned and operated this clinic for right about 47 years,” College of Osteopathic Medicine public relations director Laura Probyn said. “His family was left with this medical clinic and they offered the clinic as a gift to the university hoping that the university would take it on and operate it.”
The Popoff family wanted to make sure the people who relied on the clinic would continue to have somewhere to go, because the east side of Detroit is a “medically underserved area,” Probyn said. “Healthcare is a great need there,” she said.
The clinic will continue to operate as a family health care clinic, as it did under Popoff’s care.
That means the clinic cares for everyone, from children to the elderly, Probyn said.
“That might mean vaccinations, that might mean taking care of people who have chronic conditions like diabetes, it might mean putting stitches on somebody who’s fallen,” Probyn said.
Popoff attended Wayne State University and the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, according to his obituary, though he had another connection to MSU.
Popoff worked as a clinical faculty member at MSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine and helped to train osteopathic medical students, Probyn said.
The rebranded clinic will carry on that part of Popoff’s work as well.
“In addition to providing care for people who desperately need it,” Probyn said, “(The clinic is) going to give MSU osteopathic medicine students a place where they can go and learn.”
MSU already has 85 residents working in Wayne County through the Detroit Wayne County Health Authority.
The workers now have the opportunity to volunteer or do rotations at the Popoff Clinic, which they didn’t have before.
“That’s going to be a new avenue of learning for them,” Probyn said.
MSU hopes to honor Popoff’s legacy with both his patients and his students.
“It’s going to be an opportunity for new doctors to build their skills,” Probyn said. “But most importantly for people who really need care to have a place where they can get really good quality healthcare.”
