Models and Mentors
Lars Osterberg: "Health care is a human right."
By Pam Lowney
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Lars Osterberg, MD, director of the Arbor Free Clinic | |
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In the mind of Lars Osterberg, every little bit helps when it comes to those with little or no access to quality health care. Since 1994, he has been doing his part at the Arbor Free Clinic, an acute-care center run by Stanford medical students in Menlo Park. Osterberg, MD, clinical assistant professor of medicine (internal medicine), has served as the director of the clinic for the last five years.
On June 9, Osterberg received the Lance Armstrong Foundation Compassion in Medicine Award for his work. Named for the well-known cyclist and cancer survivor, this award acknowledges "a physician-mentor whose practice of the art and science of medicine exemplifies a humanistic approach to medical student teaching and patient care."
“I feel very honored to get this,” says Osterberg. “But I also feel like I am just doing my job.”
A firm belief that health care is a human right has influenced his career from the start. As an undergraduate at UC-Berkeley, Osterberg volunteered at the Berkeley Free Clinic and at Children’s Hospital in Oakland. While studying medicine at UC-Davis, he ran an HIV awareness campaign, among other health education projects. He joined the Arbor Free Clinic after finishing his residency at Stanford.
Considering health as much a consequence of economic and social issues as biomedical issues, Osterberg supports the creation of a national health-care system. “I think it is a shame that we don’t have care for so many people. People who are sick can’t work and if you don’t work, you lose your insurance,” he says. “It doesn’t make sense. I have seen too many people whose lives have been ruined because of health problems.”
In the absence of a universal health-care system, Osterberg says doctors have a special responsibility to help fill the gaps. “Obviously you have to take care of your patients but there is a bigger role in taking care of the community as a whole,” he says. “If everybody did a little extra, we might make the ends meet in this country where we could actually provide care for everybody.”
Community involvement offers important educational opportunities, says Osterberg. Medical students at Arbor gain experience taking histories and vital signs, performing physical exams and presenting to an attending clinician. Students also learn how to work with diverse populations and use available social services for their patients.
Community work offers personal rewards as well, says Osterberg. Recently clinic workers were able to help one patient with an early diagnosis of cancer, and another with a well-timed agency referral that helped her to leave an abusive relationship.
Despite such successes, community medicine is not for the faint of heart. “There are Sundays when you come to the clinic and there will already be 25 people lined up,” Osterberg says. “It can be disheartening because you know you can’t see them all. You just have to keep telling yourself that you are helping who you can.”
Communicating with other grassroots organizations around the country that grapple with similar issues helps, says Osterberg. But his biggest inspiration continues to be the students he teaches.
“I think the students help keep things in perspective,” says Osterberg. “Medical students are not jaded yet. They still have that optimism, and that is invigorating.”
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