College within a College (CwiC) – Population health

The development of programmatic tracks providing students with academic opportunities outside of the traditional medical curriculum represents a national trend in medical education. With HRSA Interdisciplinary and Interprofessional Joint Graduate Degree funding, the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University created an Inter-professional Primary Care Dual Degree Program (IPCDDP), which builds on Jefferson Medical College's College within a College (CwiC) Scholarly Concentrations Program in Population Health. The IPCDDP mission is to provide outstanding training in primary care and innovative education in chronic care management and population and public health in order to prepare primary care leaders to serve as future change agents working to improve the health of Americans, especially its most vulnerable and underserved populations.

Key CwiC-PH components include: Year 1 – enhanced population health components of Introduction to Clinical Medicine (ICM) I, participation in community health initiatives, journal club, and twice monthly seminars; Summer – population health related programs; Year 2 – case studies in ICM II, twice monthly seminars emphasizing application of the social and behavioral foundations of Public Health; Year 3 – On going advising, enhanced clerkship experiences, Capstone planning; and Year 4 – Two community electives and completion of a Capstone Project.

Benefits to students include a certificate upon completion of the program, and 15 credits applied to the MPH program at Jefferson.

The development, institutional collaboration, and a detailed description of the CwiC – PH program will be presented along with implementation, evaluation, and sustainability plans.