Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Student Doctor Network
Student Doctor Network (SDN) was created in 1999 as a nonprofit service to provide free advising resources, tools, and a peer-support forum community to those who would otherwise not have access to such services. SDN brings together hundreds of thousands of current and future healthcare students and professionals into one community where they can share information and offer guidance.
In addition to the SDN community forums, SDN offers a wide range of tools to help students successfully prepare for, apply to, and complete health professional school:
- Application Assistant Calculator
- Interview Feedback
- Application Cost Calculator
- Medical Specialty Selector
- Activity Finder
Confidential Expert Advice
Have questions about the admissions process or your specific application? Get your questions answered by our vetted experts to help you through college and into health professional school. Our vetted experts include admissions committee members, pre-health advisors, and current practitioners and residents.
Anonymous versions of the questions are then published based on the discretion of the Confidential Expert Advice team.
Premed Planner App
As the requirements for medical school continue to increase and the process becomes more competitive, HPSA developed the Premed Planner App to help all students maximize their chances of a successful medical school application. The app enables you to track your progress while preparing to apply to medical school with the following tools:
- Application process overview
- Premedical course timeline
- Volunteering, shadowing, and clinical experience expectations
- Ability to log and track hours, along with notifications to remind you to log your activity hours
Available for both iOS and Android devices. Premed Planner does not track personal information.
How-To Admissions Guides
Follow these step-by-step guides to help you get into the health professional school of your dreams. These guides will help you strengthen your application so that, with some hard work, you can be competitive at any health professional school. Each guide outlines important information for applicants, including:
- Pre-application requirements - prerequisite classes, volunteering, and extracurricular activities
- Test prep resources and study outlines for admissions exams such as the GRE and DAT.
- Program-specific application system information
- School-specific guides showing GPA, test scores, and unique features and characteristics of each school
- Breakdown of the interview process, including types of interviews, common questions, and how to prepare
Each guide is available to download at no cost through the generous support of HPSA donors and sponsors.
Dental school, optometry school, occupational therapy school, and physical therapy school guides are currently available.
StudySchedule
StudySchedule generates a customized and adaptive plan for the MCAT based on your test date, study materials, and knowledge base. Use your dashboard to track your progress, make adjustments, and integrate your schedule into your favorite calendar app.
Where we work
Awards
The Opportunity Project Open Data For Good Grand Challenge Winner 2021
US Dept. of Health & Human Services
External reviews

Photos
Videos
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Healthcare systems in the United States struggle with addressing substantial disparities in population health and healthcare. One key factor in these disparities is that large parts of the U.S. have significant shortages of primary, dental, or mental health care providers.
These shortages exist, in part, because students who are from these areas don’t become doctoral-level healthcare providers. Students from wealthier backgrounds are more likely to practice in affluent areas similar to where they grew up. Physician and other healthcare shortages perpetuate because medical school and other health professional classes skew toward students from wealthy households, and wealthier students go on to serve fewer patients from urban and rural underserved communities.
HPSA aims to increase the number of healthcare providers in underserved areas by supporting students from underserved areas to enroll in and successfully complete health professional programs.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
HPSA aims to increase the number of healthcare providers in underserved areas by supporting students from underserved areas to enroll in and complete health professional programs. There are multiple reasons why students from underserved areas do not become healthcare providers, but one key factor is an information gap. Numerous studies have identified that lack of information is a crucial reason why students from underserved communities do not pursue doctoral-level health professional programs.
HPSA works to provide students from underserved areas with the information to become successful applicants to health professional schools. HPSA delivers this information to students via the internet or through in-person programs.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
HPSA publishes the Student Doctor Network (SDN), a vibrant online community of prehealth and health professional students and practicing doctors. Through this community, we can distribute information and access to internet-based tools to support students on their admissions journeys. In addition, through virtual distribution, we reach students who would otherwise not have access to advising services, such as non-traditional students.
In addition to using the Student Doctor Network to disseminate information, HPSA partners with other nonprofits and schools to increase our reach.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Our advising experts answered more than 1,300 student questions this past year, and our student members accessed our "How To" admissions guides more than 150 times per week. The 2021 Open Data for Good Grand Challenge named a new tool, Activity Finder, as a prize winner in the Health and COVID-19 category. In February 2022, we will be launching two courses to support students as they prepare to apply to health professional programs, Application Booster and Becoming a Student Doctor. In addition, we are preparing to pilot a new program, Undergraduate Medical Accelerator Program (UMAP), with higher education partners in Oklahoma in April 2022 that will focus on preparing pre-health students enrolled in community college for future medical school admission. We are also collaborating on a recent HRSA grant submission as a consulting organization with a higher education institution in Texas, which, if awarded, would begin in September 2022.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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Who are the people you serve with your mission?
We serve pre-health students, from current undergraduate students to nontraditional students. From the undergraduate student just getting their feet wet to the nontraditional student pursuing a health professional career later in life, HPSA aims to assist underserved students in their educational journey.
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How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Community meetings/Town halls, Suggestion box/email,
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve,
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What significant change resulted from feedback?
HPSA launched a new Student Advisory Council to ensure we understand the range of our constituent viewpoints. The Student Advisory Council, made up of a diverse group of pre-health and health professional students, has been instrumental in developing new program ideas and providing feedback on existing programs. Additionally, in response to the changes to healthcare admissions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we added additional content to help students prepare for virtual interviews.
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With whom is the organization sharing feedback?
Our staff, Our board,
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How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship?
In 2021, we recruited students to serve on a new structure - a Student Advisory Council (SAC). This diverse group of pre-health and health professional students has been instrumental in developing new program ideas and providing feedback on existing programs. Since the inception of the SAC, their input has been key to creating a new online application, Activity Finder, and shifting the editorial content of our articles to provide more health professional school news to pre-health students. Additionally, we have implemented standard pre- and post-program surveys as we launch new courses and programs. These surveys, and the input that students provide, will guide future course development and changes, allowing the students to control the direction of the courses.
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback,
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Health Professional Student Association
Board of directorsas of 2/17/2022
Gary LeRoy
MD
Term: 2005 - 2021
Catherine Arthur
DVM
Benjamin Shapiro
MD
Scott Nass
MD
Emilio Russo
MD
James Herman
MD
Laura Turner
Lee Burnett
DO
Kimberli Cox
MD
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? No -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? No -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? No -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.
Equity strategies
Last updated: 11/03/2020GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.