The University of Washington has opened a student-run clinic in south Seattle to make health care more accessible to Seattle residents. At the Al-Shifa Clinic community members can receive free medical care while a team of 10 medical students and 20 undergraduates gain valuable experience. A board of faculty oversees the clinic’s operations and a board of community members ensures that the clinic meets the community’s needs. Tipu Khan, a fourth-year graduate student in medicine and the clinic’s board president and director, got the idea for the Al-Shifa Clinic from his undergraduate studies at the University of California at Davis. UC Davis has six similar clinics, and provided a successful model for the Al-Shifa clinic. The name “Al-Shifa” means “the cure” in Arabic, and is geared toward Seattle’s Muslim population, though all are welcome.

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