141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

277373
College within the college (CwiC) – population health in medical education

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

James Plumb, MD, MPH , Department of Family and Community Medicine, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, PA
Rickie O. Brawer, PhD, MPH , Center for Urban Health, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA
Abbie Santana, MSPH , Family & Community Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA
Robert Simmons, DrPH, MPH, CHES , Director, Master of Public Health (MPH) Program, Jefferson School of Population Health, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA
Nancy L. Chernett, MA, MPH , Jefferson School of Population Health, Thomas Jefferson University, Phildelphia, PA
The development of programmatic tracks providing students with academic opportunities outside of the traditional medical curriculum represents a national trend in medical education. Enhancing medical student education with public health knowledge, skills and attitudes has been recommended by many organizations. With HRSA Interdisciplinary and Interprofessional Joint Graduate Degree five-year funding, the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University created an Inter-professional Primary Care Dual Degree Program (IPCDDP), building on Jefferson Medical College's College within the College (CwiC) Scholarly Concentration Program in Population Health. The mission of the IPCDDP is to provide training in primary care and population health in order to prepare primary care leaders to improve the health of vulnerable and underserved populations. CwiC – PH is a four year longitudinal area of concentration. Key components include: Year 1 enhanced population health components of Introduction to Clinical Medicine, community immersions, twice monthly seminars Summer – population health related programs locally and globally Year 2 case studies in Fundamentals of Clinical Medicine, twice monthly seminars' applying social and behavioral foundations of Public Health Year 3 enhanced clerkship experiences Year 4 community-based electives and completion of a Capstone Project, Three cohorts (totaling 113 students) have entered the program (17% of medical school classes). Benefits to students include a certificate upon program completion, recognition in Dean's letters, and 15 credits applied to the Jefferson MPH program. A description of the CwiC – PH program will be presented along with characteristics of enrolled students, implementation, evaluation, and sustainability plans.

Learning Areas:
Clinical medicine applied in public health
Other professions or practice related to public health
Public health or related education

Learning Objectives:
Identify an approach to integrating population health into a medical school curriculum Design a methodology to recruit students into an area of concentration in population health Identify the challenges in curricular reform and innovation

Keywords: Public Health Curricula, Medicine

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: For the last ten years, I have taught Introduction to Public Health, Social and Behavioral Foundations of Public Health in the Jefferson MPH Program, and have served on over 40 Capstone Committees. I am Coordinator of the College Within the College - Population Health Program and Director of Jefferson’s Center for Urban Health coordinating five 4th year medical student electives in community based sites.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.