What is a medical student-run clinic?
For our research, a student-run clinic is defined as “a healthcare delivery program in which medical students take primary responsibility for logistics and operational management during clinic hours; and which is capable of prescribing disease-specific treatment to patients.” This definition does NOT include community service projects limited to handing out health supplies, merely checking blood pressure, or student volunteer programs hosted by professionally operated medical groups. Typically, student-run clinics – sometimes called “homeless health projects” or “neighborhood health projects” – are medical student programs in which students manage a patient care clinic. Clinics tend to serve under- and un-insured patients in underserved areas. With the growth of these programs in the last 10-15 years, they now constitute significant healthcare delivery programs for many patients. How many student-run clinics are there? In a national survey of medical schools in the 50 states (76% respo
