Community service as an integral component of undergraduate medical education: facilitating student involvement.

Urban poverty, of which New York City has the highest incidence, is associated with unmet needs and inappropriate use of emergency rooms and hospitals. Community-based medical practitioners can ameliorate these situations. Medical students from New York City-area schools often are willing to help. The New York Academy of Medicine instituted an Urban Health Initiative to coordinate student and faculty involvement in community service and to emphasize the social responsibilities of medicine. The experience may provide a model for integrating community service into medical school curricula.