As lobbyists go, these are well-equipped.

They have brochures, bumper stickers and buttons. They're experienced at staging rallies, writing letters, speaking at public hearings and cornering politicians. They know how to make an impression.

Johnny Crawford/AJC (ENLARGE)

Smbat Amirbekian (center) was one of the many medical students lobbying the Fulton County Commission on behalf of Grady Memorial Hospital on Wednesday. Members of HealthSTAT – a group of health students working together – are expected to make their plea to the DeKalb County Commission Tuesday.

Johnny Crawford/AJC (ENLARGE)

Larissa Thomas (from left), Eva Lohrasbi and Breanna Lathrop – members of Health Students Taking Action Together – were three of the medical students recently lobbying the Fulton County Commission on behalf of Grady Hospital.

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As various political bodies have debated the fate of the Grady Health System at meetings throughout metro Atlanta, members of HealthSTAT — Health Students Taking Action Together — have been conspicuously present in their white coats. Last week, almost 100 of them filled one side of the Fulton County assembly hall, urging commissioners to approve a lease transferring Grady's management to a private, nonprofit corporation.

With a favorable 5-2 vote in Fulton behind them, the students of HealthSTAT are expected to turn out again Tuesday to push DeKalb's commission to follow suit, a move expected to secure hundreds of millions in private and state funds.

The group is committed to being vigilant beyond any management change, trying to ensure Grady maintains its safety-net mission to the poor, said past president Larissa Thomas, a student working on both an M.D. and a master's degree in public health at Emory University.

These students from across Georgia were hard at work long before the financial crisis at Grady threatened to shut down the historic public hospital. Even while they advocate for changes at Grady, they also are tackling childhood obesity, HIV/AIDS policy and health disparities.

Their motto, on a sleek bumper sticker, is "Health Care For Y'all."

"We can make a difference now," Thomas said, "We don't have to wait until our professional careers."

HealthSTAT began in 2001 when a handful of students from Emory University and Morehouse medical schools got into a conversation about their shared concern for people with no insurance. They decided they could benefit their patients by adding a hefty dose of public advocacy to individual medical treatment.

Using e-mail, they advertised a candlelight vigil for the uninsured. It drew more than 150 people from four schools and is now an annual event.

Since HealthSTAT's incorporation as a nonprofit organization in 2002, it has grown to include students of nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, public health and other related fields at nine Georgia colleges and medical schools.

About 300 students are dues-paying members, and hundreds more participate in events on various campuses.

HealthSTAT is no seat-of-the-pants operation. Before taking on an issue, students hold a two-day leadership symposium, inviting in community experts to help them study the problem. A committee then schedules appropriate service projects and advocacy opportunities.

The childhood obesity prevention initiative, for example, works with Hands On Atlanta to sponsor "Steppin' for Health," an after-school program in several Atlanta public schools that combines nutrition education with step-dance lessons. A separate program at the Andrew and Walter Young Family YMCA works with girls to improve their body image and self-esteem through fitness and healthy food.

Students collect and disseminate the stories of people who have benefited from AIDS prevention programs, host peer-to-peer programs on HIV prevention and policy, and organize service projects with charities serving AIDS patients.

They also show up at the state Capitol when the Legislature is debating Peachcare, a public insurance program for uninsured children of working families, or Medicaid.

Many of HealthSTAT's student leaders came to their graduate health programs with a history of service.

Sapna Chand, a future obstetrician-gynecologist studying at the Medical College of Georgia, spent a year working in a New York AIDS clinic with AmeriCorps. But the leadership skills she's acquiring through HealthSTAT "will help affect things at a higher level," she said.

Joy Baker, a Morehouse medical student who plans to be a surgeon, described herself as "ignorance on fire" before she joined HealthSTAT. She was eager to undertake work to reduce disparities in health care, she said, but didn't have the skills or experience she needed.

"I had no idea what I was doing," she said, "but I was passionate about doing it."

Now, she said, she believes she can channel her passion into effective advocacy.

The Grady crisis illustrates the power of the HealthSTAT network, said Breanna Lathrop, a Woodruff scholar at Emory studying to be a nurse practitioner while also pursuing a master's degree in public health.

"We were mobilized," she said. "We were there. We already had this community established."

Their professors have taken notice.

"The power of their voice cannot be underestimated," said Dr. Lawrence Sanders, associate dean for clinical affairs at Morehouse School of Medicine and a Grady physician. "They're able to appeal to key decision makers at all levels."

"They have great energy and incredible organization," said Dr. Leon Haley Jr., the Emory University Medical School physician who heads emergency service at Grady.

Many HealthSTAT participants will spend their professional careers in Georgia, said Kate Neuhausen, a HealthSTAT leader and Woodruff scholar at Emory's medical school.

"Our vision is that tomorrow HealthSTAT will furnish the leaders of the Medical Association of Georgia, the Georgia Nurses Association, the Georgia Pharmacy Association and the rest of the professional groups," she said. "We'll have our leaders in state organizations creating policy for decades from now."