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The University of Iowa Mobile Clinic (UIMC) is an interdisciplinary student-run free medical clinic founded in 2002. UIMC provides free health screenings, education, and basic services to underserved populations in Iowa: immigrants, refugees, migrant farmworkers, individuals experiencing homelessness, low-income individuals, and people who live in rural communities. Forty-four percent of patients surveyed use UIMC as their only source of care. Ninety-seven percent of patients surveyed rate care as excellent or good. UIMC is a crucial safety net health care resource in Iowa to improve health equity. (Am J Public Health. 2020;1 10:1304-1307. doi:10. 2105/AJPH.2020.305755)
The University of Iowa Mobile Clinic (UIMC) is an interdisciplinary initiative of health sciences students from the schools of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, physician assistant, physical therapy, public health, and social work. Founded in 2002, for nearly two decades, UIMC has provided free health screenings, education, and basic services to underserved populations in Iowa: immigrants, refugees, migrant farmworkers, individuals experiencing homelessness, and those who are justice involved, are low income, or live in rural communities.1
INTERVENTION
A student-run free medical clinic, UIMC service learning is grounded by the five core values of health equity, service, diversity, community, and integrity.1 Because Iowa is a predominantly agricultural state, there remain large disparities between urban and rural areas.2 UIMC fills a need to provide health screenings, education, and community referrals for uninsured and underinsured patients in Iowa.
PLACE AND TIME
Unlike most student-run free medical clinics operating from a single, permanent location, UIMC operates nine traveling clinics within a 50-mile radius of Iowa City, Iowa. Although the original mobile clinic in 2002 was a retrofitted school bus in migrant farmworker camps, continual growth has led to direct partnerships with local religious, civic, and educational institutions. In 2019 UIMC coordinated, on average, monthly clinics at nine sites, each catering to a specific underserved population in Iowa (Table 1).
POPULATION
Filling a need, UIMC serves a largely uninsured population (Table A, available as a supplement to the online version ofthis article at http://www.ajph.org). Although Iowa was a Medicaid expansion state following the Affordable Care Act, recent legislation significantly reduced eligibility and enrollment.3 Safety net health centers exist in larger metropolitan areas like Des Moines, Iowa, or Iowa City but are inaccessible for rural Iowa and those...