About Us

istock_000001750425xsmall.jpg

A Grassroots Web Community

SDN is a nonprofit web site that started as a grassroots Web community at the University of Kansas in the mid-1990s.  Since then, SDN has emerged as one of the most comprehensive and most useful student-driven resources on the Internet.

The Student Doctor Network is operated by the Coastal Research Group, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization.

As part of CRG’s mission, they provide the Student Doctor Network as a free and independent resource to the pre-health and health professional student community. Learn more, read the article “The Role of SDN.”

Our community includes most doctoral-level health fields:

  1. Dental (DDS and DMD)
  2. Medical (MD and DO) (Allopathic and Osteopathic)
  3. Optometry (OD)
  4. Pharmacy (PharmD)
  5. Podiatry (DPM)
  6. Psychology (PsyD and PhD)
  7. Veterinary (DVM)

New additions to our community as of 2007:

  1. Audiology (AuD)
  2. Physical Therapy (DPT)

We’re Entirely Run by Volunteers!

StudentsThe Student Doctor Network is a 100% volunteer-run resource. SDN is operated by a small group of unpaid volunteers that are dedicated to providing students unbiased information. SDN is here to tell you the real story about the health professions and help you reach your goals.

The backbone to our site is the Student Doctor Forums. The Forums have tons of good information and inside scoops from pre-professional and professional students throughout North America.

View our volunteer team.

Roots of the Student Doctor Network

The Student Doctor Network began in the mid 1990s as the “Interactive Medical Student Lounge.”  Over the years we joined with other student-run organizations and resources.  In 1999, we renamed our organization “The Student Doctor Network” to best reflect our variety of communities and unique resources.

Interactive Medical Student Lounge

The Interactive Medical Student Lounge was the first-ever Web site for medical students!

In the fall of 1994, the University of Kansas School of Medicine (Kansas City) began offering e-mail and on-campus Internet access for students, plus lunch hour web page training for faculty and staff. Some people around campus (such as Lee Hancock, originator of the “Medical Matrix” index) had medical data on the Internet, but from the registrar’s office, Nancy Sween could not find a site specifically for medical students. She learned HTML and the “Interactive Medical Student Lounge” went on-line December 12 1994 - a free site for students of medicine, worldwide.

Originally at the University of Kansas (12/12/94 to 2/22/97), the IMSLounge moved to GeoCities and AOL in early 1997, then to http://www.medstudents.net (Nov 1998). During 1999, the IMSLounge became a charter member of the Student Doctor Network (SDN).

Osteopathic.Com

Osteopathic.Com was originally created in 1995 as The Osteopathic Source as an offshoot to the osteopathic medical student newspaper The Osteopathic Pulse. The Osteopathic Source was the first osteopathic medical student website and the first osteopathic website on the Internet.

The SDN Forums were originally hosted as an osteopathic student forum by Osteopathic.Com. Over 10 years of upgrades and expansion have made the SDN Forums the most popular section of SDN.

The BIG Guide To Med School

In 1994, Jim Henderson, MD (then a medical student) wrote a popular electronic book entitled The Pre-Med Companion. As the Internet flourished, so did the book. By 1997, it was a resource for premeds, med students, and those seeking residency positions. That same year, Dr. Henderson used the resources of that book to co-create and develop an online guide for medical students and premeds in the United States. In 1999 Medicalstudent.net became SDN’s Big Guide to Medical School.

Medschooldiary.com

Daniel Lee Imler and Brian James Hartman founded this unique site in 2000 and it quickly grew to become the most popular medical student diary site in the world. Medschooldiary.com joined SDN in 2001.  In 2007 Medschooldiary transitioned to our new blog system found on the SDN Forums.

SDN Page Evolution

Want to see what SDN looked like back when we launched? How about in 2003? We’ve changed the site design over the years to meet new browser standards, improve page-loading speed, or just because we got bored with the old design! Some of these designs don’t quite look right thanks to changes in our CSS files. Special thanks to the Internet Archive.

Press and Copyright Information

Please request permission before quoting or using any materials from our site.  All materials, including the forums, are the copyrighted property of the Coastal Research Group.

© 1999-2007 Coastal Research Group. Some rights reserved.
The SDN Logo and "Student Doctor Network" are registered trademarks of CRG.

TRUSTe Trust Mark   Creative Commons License   We subscribe to the HONcode principles of the HON Foundation. Click to verify.   HACKER SAFE certified sites prevent over 99.9% of hacker crime.