A fragile medical safety net stretches across America, made up of thousands of clinics offering free and low-cost health care to those with no other place to turn.
Run by a wide range of nonprofit groups, religious organizations, communities and educational institutions, they serve a vital role — and will continue to do so even as more Americans get access to health insurance.
But finding a clinic, and figuring out what it offers, can pose a challenge.
Enter a group of Medical School students and their colleagues from health and information technology schools at U-M.
Together, they’ve launched findcare.org, a nonprofit website that aims to make it easy to find nearby free or sliding-scale clinics, learn who they assist, what services they offer, understand where and when they’re open, and how to contact them.
The site’s database already includes information on more than 500 clinics in Michigan and approximately 2,000 in the Midwest. The Michigan clinics are already available on the website. The Findcare team aims to expand the website into a nationwide resource with information provided by clinics themselves, and by other groups of community-minded health professions students. Read more.