LI Course
CE Hours: 3 contact hours

Partnership: Reginal Medicine-Public Health Education Centers

Statement of Purpose and Institute Overview: Purpose The purpose of this institute is to help participants develop innovative strategies for increasing, improving, and integrating public health content in the medical school curriculum. The partition of public health and medicine is no longer acceptable. The 21st-century clinician must help develop the solution to public health problems such as disaster preparedness, epidemic influenza, health disparities, and the absence of a plan to provide universal health insurance. Medical educators are now recognizing this and are searching for better ways to teach public health and population medicine to future physicians. Faculty from schools of public health are often enlisted in this enterprise. This course will bring together as instructors several of the participants in the Regional Medical and Public Health Education Centers initiative funded through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Association of American Medical Colleges Cooperative Agreement. They will demonstrate a number of models for increasing and improving the public health content offered medical students in both traditional and innovative medical curricula. Methods A brief overview of the RMPHEC’s goals will be presented to inform the audience about the political, historical, and present dilemmas encountered by the disciplines of public health and medicine. The presenters will demonstrate and engage the participants in the skills necessary to develop policies which embrace interdisciplinary work. The workshop participants will be involved in assessing current interdisciplinary courses and developing the framework for future courses. Brainstorming sessions will engage the participants in various strategies to implement service learning concepts and civic responsibility while simultaneously combining public health and medicine. Group dialog and role plays will demonstrate the value of the MPH/MD professionals in the 21st century. Conclusion The roots of public health and medicine, as single professions are deep. But the global nature of our current society require that we work together to create substantive and enduring change toward universal well-being. The integration of public health and medicine is one step toward attaining positive change.

Session Objectives: 1. Discuss alternative models of integrating public health content in the medical curriculum. 1. Discuss two alternative models of integrating public health content in the medical curriculum. 2. Propose two approaches to improving and expanding the public health content at their own institutions. 3. Demonstrate how the determinants of health are integrated throughout the medical curriculum 4. Identify 3 community service learning projects to engage medical students in public health initiatives

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing