Medical Student Finds His Calling With Free Clinic

Every Wednesday night, you may find one second-year medical student locking up the doors to the School of Medicine Student-Run Free Clinic. After long hours of seeing patients, ordering medical equipment, applying for grants and working with fellow students and School of Medicine faculty, Justin Berk believes he has found his calling.

Berk puts in approximately 80 hours a month at the clinic as its student director. Add to that the rigorous academic hours of a medical student and other community service work, and you'll see why the American Medical Association (AMA) recently honored him with the 2013 Leadership Award.

Despite being an early leader in his medical education, Berk was not always sure he wanted to be a physician. Originally a biology major, he fell in love with health policy and learned about what can and cannot be accomplished for the masses in medicine. Berk said a person can be a passionate physician; but there are also roadblocks to providing adequate health care access to all people. He hopes to make primary care or internal medicine his career focus while also serving to overcome those barriers.

"In these two fields you can balance patient-centered care with the public health component and business side of things, all in the context of improving the health of underserved populations," Berk said. "I wanted to become a physician and have the ability to help people when they are the most vulnerable, sick and have nowhere to turn. The common goal is to improve health. Small changes in business or policy can help a lot of people."

Berk said his education at the School of Medicine has given him a wonderful opportunity with the free clinic.

"The investment in the Student-Run Free Clinic is energizing," Berk said. "At the end of the night, you may be exhausted, but every hour reaffirms why I went into medicine. I make the time because the clinic is the most formative experience in medical school. At the clinic, we all build off of each other as a team. You see the patients' faces and they are grateful. They are those people who are struggling and the working poor. At the clinic we treat them with the dignity, the respect and the care they deserve."

Berk is one of 20 students across the country given this prestigious honor for work in community service, medical education and public health. The award provided medical students, residents/fellows and early career physicians from around the country with special training to develop their skills as future leaders in organized medicine and community affairs.

"I am excited and honored to have received this award," Berk said. "It is a privilege to be in this group, and one of the greatest benefits has been the leadership training we went through at the conference. We had the opportunity to meet champions of health care and learn alongside other students how to become better advocates for the underserved."

Berk is enrolled at the School of Medicine in Lubbock, working toward an M.D./MBA dual degree. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Yale University and the Yale School of Public Health, respectively. Prior to running the TTUHSC Student-Run Free Clinic, he served as the director for AIDS Walk New Haven Inc., a nonprofit seeking to raise awareness and funds for local HIV organizations.