Innovative Public Health Partnerships to Improve Latino Health through Pipeline Education

In the fall of 2014, Latino MPH students at UIC created an initiative to address the inequities affecting Chicago’s Latino population. We partnered with Medicina Scholars, a UIC Latino pre-medical program, to create and implement a three-part interactive workshop series to discuss the field of public health, social determinants of health, public health models, and community engagement to 98 college students interested in becoming physicians. “Creating a Partnership in Latino Health” Workshop Series is the only initiative of its kind in Chicago because it is led by UIC Latino public health students, it promotes public health awareness among future Latino doctors, and it fosters the leadership of Latino MPH students.

 Workshops that focus on public health models and public health interventions, for example, build connections between the UIC College of Medicine and School of Public Health and reflect the ways these campus divisions work together to address Latino health inequities across different communities. Thus far we have held two workshops and the evaluation process, which includes participant surveys and reflection, demonstrate that students have gained the skills necessary to apply public health concepts to their own experiences and communities. The workshops served as an opportunity to discuss Latino health and Latino students’ motivation to pursue a health profession. The student-centered model of our workshop is an example of how interdisciplinary practice can function within the health field. The bridge formed between disciplines can be a standard that reduces the silo-ing of research and overall health services.