Christy Meyer, a student at the UC Davis School of Medicine (SOM), is Co-Director of the Joan Viteri Memorial Clinic (JVMC), a clinic run by medical students that provides “Unbiased health care to intravenous drug users, sex workers and their families.” JVMC is one of seven student-run clinics (SRCs) associated with the UC Davis SOM, others serve the Latino, African-American, South Asian and Muslim, Asian and Pacific Islander, Filipino Veterano, and homeless communities of Sacramento.

Meyer teamed up with Patrick Romano, M.D., M.P.H., and Melissa Gosdin, Ph.D., of the UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research (CHPR), and 41 undergraduate students to find out what motivates patients to utilize SRCs, and to get patient input on how the clinics could better serve their under-served communities. Funded by the UC Davis SOM, no previous study had directly asked the patients of such clinics about their experiences with SRCs. 

The undergraduate students completed human subject research protection training and were taught qualitative data collection and analysis research methods at CHPR prior to conducting 104 interviews with patients from all seven UC Davis SRCs and the Gender Health Center, a professionally managed clinic affiliated with JVMC that provides care for the LGBTQQI community. After the interviews were transcribed and translated from six different languages, students qualitatively coded all the transcripts and then Meyer and Gosdin identified the major themes among them.

The study’s results indicate that patients appreciate the accessibility to healthcare that the SRCs provide, being open on weekends and accepting patients with no health insurance, for example. Patients feel respected and not judged, and find the medical professionals at the SRCs to be thoughtful, compassionate and thorough. That SRCs break through language barriers for patients is also greatly appreciated. In terms of improvement, patients asked for more, i.e. more (and better) equipment, more doctors, more services—like dental and vision, and larger facilities so that the SRCs will be able to serve even more patients.

Meyer hopes her study will provide the foundation for future research and policies relating to SRCs. Toward that end, three of the participating undergraduate students are conducting follow-up research studies related to the original project.