Student-run free clinics are a means to address the needs of underserved patients while providing the next generation of physicians with the experiential learning necessary to better understand patients, communities and community healthcare.

In January 2008, UC Irvine medical students will open a student-run free clinic in partnership with Latino Health Access in Santa Ana. We are currently looking for passionate and inspirational physician volunteers to support our effort.

Over the past 10 years, UCI medical students have helped run a successful education and referral clinic, Cl’nica Cari–o. Although it offers valuable health education and screening services to the Santa Ana community, the clinic is unable to provide needed medical services beyond immunizations.

In 2006, students recognized that they could make a greater difference in the lives of people without basic medical care using a free-clinic model and began developing the UCI Student-Run Free Clinic as a community-based solution. Such clinics are successful at many UC medical schools and have improved healthcare delivery for the underserved from San Diego to Sacramento.

Our student-run clinic will provide medical care to those who are ineligible for existing county or government programs, and who cannot afford private insurance. Medical students will work alongside students in nurse practitioner, nursing and other undergraduate programs, and with community groups, all while receiving guidance and support from UCI faculty and administrators, including Medical Director Emily Dow, MD, and Clinic Director Alberto Manetta, MD.

The clinic will focus primarily on preventive healthcare, but will be able to prescribe medications through pharmaceutical company patient assistance programs. In addition, the clinic will be able to order lab tests and imaging services through local providers.

We are seeking attending volunteers who will nourish our desire to help the underserved and facilitate our experiential learning as physicians in training. Especially needed are volunteers from the fields of family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine and psychiatry. We look forward to serving alongside dedicated physicians from across Orange County who can be volunteer preceptors for a few hours a month. The goal of this project is to showcase the excellence that can be achieved through the collaborative spirit in medicine.

If you would like to volunteer your time, participate in any way or make a donation, check out www.ucifreeclinic.org and send an e-mail to uci.free.clinic@gmail.com.

The UCI Student-Run Free Clinic Team contributed to this article, including Ashkan Akasheh, Aislinn Bird, JB Fenix, Samia Ghaffer, Nick Jain, Jonny Kirsten, Viet Tran, Jason Warren, Marcus Williams and Felin Zhu.