Every student who takes part in a medical school interview has to answer a question that Professor Craig Hoesley, M.D., says often produces the same answer from every potential student. 

Six years ago a group of medical students founded Equal Access Birmingham, an organization that provides medical care to the under-served in the community. Through this organization, UAB med students prove they want to be doctors not for just a select group, but to help all people.

It's a standard response from applicants, but UAB medical school students are proving those words to be true, Hoesley says. Six years ago a group of students founded Equal Access Birmingham (EAB), an organization dedicated to providing medical care to the under-served in the community. They accomplish this by staffing the M-POWER Ministries free clinic every Wednesday night and hosting local health fairs and screenings, administering education courses and addressing other needs of the under-served with specialty clinics. 

"These students are demonstrating they want to help people in their actions every day," says Hoesley, the faculty advisor. "I think their actions show that we all should feel good about the future of medicine. Despite a very rigorous academic curriculum - one that equates to a full-time job - they want to volunteer their time to provide this service. That tells me they're in medical schools for the right reasons." 

EAB was started approximately six years ago by a group of medical students who wanted to start a free clinic that they would run under the supervision of UAB physicians. 

The students wanted to accomplish two goals: Provide care for the medically under-served of Birmingham and do it in a way that would enable them to begin honing their clinical skills early in their medical school career. 

M-POWER Ministries, a faith-based social services ministry, had an existing clinic that was open each Tuesday and Thursday; they were looking to expand their services when UAB faculty and students approached them. A partnership was quickly formed, and a student-run clinic supervised by UAB physicians began serving the community there each Wednesday evening at 4022 Fourth Ave. South. 

Approximately 20 UAB physicians volunteer to help in the clinic during the year, but it's the students who organize and run it. Six students, mostly first- and second-year students, volunteer two hours of their time to record patient histories, perform physical exams they have learned in the classroom and present their findings to the attending physician who walks the students step by step through the pertinent features of each case and how he formulates a diagnosis. 

"We students really enjoy the experience because we are getting clinical education from the beginning, which is pretty difficult to get in your first two years," says Julie Turner, a second-year medical student and co-president of EAB. "But at the same time, it's a valuable opportunity for us to contribute to the community." 

The clinic is popular with the medical students; more than 160 participated in one or more of the volunteer opportunities available in the 2009-10 academic year. Opportunities to volunteer are made available to volunteers every three months, and they fill up quickly. 

"There's a waiting list to volunteer," Hoesley says. "We've never had a problem trying to get students to staff the clinic. There's good representation across all four classes of medical school, too. They love doing it." 

Two of EAB's eight officers run the clinic each week. They orient new volunteer students, supervise the flow of the clinic and manage paperwork, which frees up the volunteers to work with patients and gain as much experience as possible. 

Community outreach

EAB has focused on community outreach in other ways during the past couple years, too. 

The group runs free preventive care workshops and performs multiple health screenings at shelters, churches and other areas in the community during the year. Each screening is organized and produced by students. 

The screenings typically are for blood glucose levels, blood pressure and body mass index and obesity. 

"We also add an educational component to that for the patient," Turner says. "We tell them their lab values, what they mean and what they can do to improve them. We also try to identify if they can get access to health care some place in the community. We help them fill out paperwork and determine if they might be eligible to go to other free clinics in the area." 

The students need supplies to run the screenings, and the School of Medicine has provided some funds for them. 

Students now are beginning to raise funds to help purchase supplies, including glucose meters, testing strips and blood pressure cuffs. 

EAB is hosting its first 5K "Run For the Health of It" event Saturday, May 1 to raise money. It will begin at 8:30 a.m. in Crestline Village at the Knights of Columbus Route. Early registration is $20 for the 5K and $10 for a one-mile fun run.

"EAB would not be where it is today without the support of the administration," says Turner, a Birmingham native. "We wanted to try to establish one major fundraiser every year, and this is our first 5K. We wanted to do an event that would help us raise funds and emphasized our principles, which is a healthy community."