Rock Chalk, JayDoc!

Jennifer Scott Koontz Credit: Photo courtesy Lawrence Journal World

Next month, thanks to students in the KU School of Medicine, uninsured and underinsured residents in the Kansas City area will have access to some basic medical care through the JayDoc Free Clinic.

The clinic is being made possible through a "Caring for Community" grant from the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Pfizer Medical Humanities Initiative. The program at KU is one of only eight such projects funded nationwide through the program.

The JayDoc Free Clinic will be open on Wednesday evenings beginning Aug. 13. Second- and third-year medical students will operate the facility under the watch of volunteer physicians. In addition, eight KU undergraduate volunteers will work in the clinic.

The clinic will operate in the existing Southwest Boulevard Family Health Clinic, on the corner of Southwest and Rainbow boulevards in Kansas City, Kan.

Students from KU have worked since last October to secure funding for the program. All the grant applications, logistics and staffing plans had to be performed by students to qualify.

Jennifer Scott Koontz, who is entering her third year of medical school, is the executive chairman of the organization. She received more than 100 responses from fellow students to an e-mail seeking volunteers for the clinic.

"I think there are certain people who need to do more than just study to keep them going, and people who have a real passion for helping the community," Koontz told the Lawrence Journal-World.