A UNMC student is on the editorial board of a new peer-reviewed electronic journal dedicated to student-run free clinics.
Joshua Gruhl, a third-year medical student at UNMC, is one of six board members of “The Journal of Student-Run Clinics” which debuted June 4 with a four-article issue.
The journal is the newest component of the rapidly growing Society of Student-Run Free Clinics (SSRFC), a national organization that seeks to promote collaboration, innovation and best practices among student-run free clinics across the country.
He joins students from Rutgers, Indiana University, as well as other institutions, on the board of the journal, which sprang from an idea discussed at the Society of Student Run Free Clinics annual conference in Nashville, Tenn., two years ago.
“The six of us were all interested in research, and we were passionate about student-run free clinics,” Gruhl said.
“We wanted to find a way to blend the two, while also creating a medium for students across the country to publish peer-reviewed research that would advance the field for involved students and faculty,” Gruhl said.
“That’s something that never existed before. Very little research has been done on the impact that student-run free clinics make on the health care system, and on the education of health profession students. But we had all experienced it at our own institutions.”
The goal is to publish twice a year and to be indexed by some of the searchable academic databases. The journal already is accepting and reviewing material for the next issue, tentatively set for release in the fall.
“We’ve seen 500-plus students and faculty members come to the Society of Student Run Free Clinics conference each year, armed with poster presentations and data-driven oral presentations, and there is a lot of enthusiasm,” Gruhl said. “Our goal is to keep this enthusiasm up throughout the rest of the year.”
“We’ve laid the groundwork for people going forward to make the most of this new journal,” Gruhl said. “So far, the journal has been attracting widespread interest, as we’ve received submissions from medical students, pharmacy students, Ph.D. students, as well as public health and social work students–so it’s a very interdisciplinary group, which makes it a lot of fun.”