Columbia Student Medical Outreach (CoSMO) began in 2000 when a group of first year medical students started to work on establishing a primary care center in their community devoted to serving the uninsured of Washington Heights. Through researching student run clinics in New York, soliciting the involvement of attending physicians and administration, and garnering the support of New York-Presbyterian Hospital administration we opened four years later on March 6th, 2004 at 21 Audubon Avenue.

Thanks to the involvement of over 120 medical, public health, social work, and nursing students, attending physicians at Columbia University Medical Center, New York-Presbyterian Hospital senior administration, and community-based organizations we are able to maintain and expand our Saturday morning healthcare center to include not only medical care, but also the services of social workers, health educators, Spanish-language interpreters, and nurses.