By Adel Battikha (’27)

On a chilly Wednesday evening, outside Cornerstone Church, a group of Loma Linda University (LLU) medical students set up a table with blood pressure cuffs, wound care supplies, and blood glucose monitors, and eagerly awaited the arrival of community members. These students are part of the LLU Street Medicine organization, a more than decade-old organization in which student-led teams bring necessary healthcare services to unhoused and underserved communities in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. By meeting people where they are, often at their most vulnerable time, these students exemplify both our school’s mission of spreading the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus Christ and the truth that healthcare is, at its heart, an act of love and advocacy.

LLU Street Medicine was founded in 2012 as a physician-supervised care modality. It offers screening services to community members with limited healthcare access by bringing these services directly to parks, shelters, and encampments across the Inland Empire. Each week, volunteers set up, on average, two to three mobile clinics providing free medical checkups and screenings, compassionate conversation, counseling, and referrals to long-term healthcare and social service resources.

For medical trainees, these encounters are transformative. Students have the opportunity to utilize their clinical skills to care for patients while simultaneously gaining a deeper understanding of the realities of being unhoused and the barriers that prevent individuals from obtaining healthcare in a traditional medical setting. The core medical principles of justice, equity, and beneficence that guide every Loma Linda medical student are strengthened and deepened through this work. Whether it’s applying wound dressings to an elderly person’s foot ulcer or screening for diabetes with a blood glucose test, these moments emphasize Street Medicine’s belief that every person deserves to be seen, heard, and cared for, no matter where they live.

Partnerships with community groups such as SAC Health, UReach, and local churches, as well as support from the Alumni Association, not only ensure the success of Street Medicine’s mobile clinics but also help support longitudinal care for its patients. Throughout the upcoming year, the Street Medicine team will be working on several new initiatives, including launching an electronic health records system, expanding point-of-care testing, pursuing medical and public health research projects, and collaborating with various groups in order to add specialty medical care (including behavioral interventions) to the services they provide their patients. As demand for services continues to grow, the team is actively applying for grants, seeking additional resources, and welcoming new partners to help sustain this vital work.

Since 2019, LLU Street Medicine has cared for nearly 900 patients throughout the Inland Empire. Yet, its impact cannot be measured by numbers alone. Through each blood pressure check, each carefully dressed wound, and every quiet prayer offered in an encampment, LLU Street Medicine is committed to achieving a world where everyone has access to compassionate, dependable healthcare. Street Medicine is shaping future physicians who view advocacy not as an afterthought, but as an essential part of what it means to practice medicine.  

Published in the fall/winter 2025 ALUMNI JOURNAL.