Our story

Like much of modern New Orleans, Tulane University School of Medicine’s (TUSOM) student-run clinics in their current form were founded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Originally, students partnered with community centers and local pop-up clinics to provide patient triage, basic health care services, and referrals to communities that had lost nearly any semblance of healthcare services where they were needed most. From this, and almost entirely under the initiative of inventive Tulane students, an ad-hoc system of clinics grew and expanded in response to the needs of medically underserved communities across New Orleans. This culminated in the founding of the Student Clinic Council (SCC) in 2014, which united Tulane’s student-run clinics with the goal of easing the burden of running a clinic and solving our problems together.

Today, the SCC oversees all of TUSOM’s extracurricular clinical experiences, including over 26 student-run clinics in 13 locations across New Orleans. These clinics are split between preceptor model clinics, screening model clinics, tuberculosis testing, vaccination clinics, HIV/HCV testing clinics, and health education. Most of these operate out of homeless shelters and community centers, working with patients who are particularly vulnerable and have the least access to care.