A Tiered Approach to Offering Public Health Education to Medical Students

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act supports a new focus on health promotion, disease prevention and population health.  Interprofessional education and team-based approaches are needed to help health professionals solve complex health issues.  As a result, faculty are encouraged to explore and expand collaborative interprofessional programs that enable students obtain the education and skills needed to meet the challenging demands of tomorrow.  Faculty in the schools of medicine and public health collaborated to create a tiered approach to public health education for medical students.  The first tier is exposure to public health education for all medical students.  The second tier is a graduate certificate in public health for students who are interested in obtaining an introduction to the five core areas of public health.  The third tier is a joint MD-MPH program.  The authors will describe the process of designing and implementing the three tiers.  Accomplishments, barriers and lessons learned will be articulated.  Research underway to assess the impact of the joint degree program will be shared.