Public Health and Medicine: Partner or Perish

Introduction/Background

The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center is equipping all medical students with the fundamental tools to become engaged in population health. To improve the health of communities, physicians need to apply skills beyond those learned in the traditional biomedical model. Today, public health and medicine are two disciplines with the same goal but with different skills and perspectives. The challenge is finding learning opportunities which engage medical students at the community level. The ultimate goal of integrating a Public Health Certificate into the medical school curriculum is to broaden the workforce capable of addressing community health needs.

Methods

University leadership incorporated this initiative as part of the overall strategic plan. Through policy changes at the institutional and departmental levels, the medical curriculum was revised to include public health competencies and concepts. Partnerships with New Mexico communities and organizations expanded opportunities for students to learn public health in practice.

Results

By incorporating public health core competencies into the medical school curriculum, ALL medical students will have exposure to population health perspectives. Because of this initiative, the public health workforce will increase substantially with each graduating medical class.

Conclusions/Summary Educating medical professionals and public health leaders separately is no longer enough. Neither discipline can succeed alone. Knowledge and skills in public health, health policy, and advocacy are required to take health care to the next level: improved and expanded access and quality health care for all.