Nearly 450 University of Hawaii medical students have volunteered to provide medical care at homeless shelters on Oahu in the past six years.

The Hawaii Homeless Outreach and Medical Education Project was launched in 2006 and is featured in this month’s issue of the Hawaii Journal of Medicine and Public Health.

Students who choose to participate in the project set up mobile medical clinics at shelters in Kakaako, Waianae and Kalaeloa. First-year students give medical check-ups, take vital signs and medical histories. In later years, students help manage the program and work at various clinics.

So far, 7,600 medical “appointments” have been completed by the students.

Dr. Jill Omori, associate professor of family medicine and community health, founded the program after the medical school opened a new campus in Kakaako and the homeless population grew in the area.

A psychiatric outreach partnership that began in February with the Institute for Human Services involves doctors at the medical school who have already received their medical degrees but are still completing their specialization in psychiatry.