ATSU-SOMA selected to join prestigious American Medical Association consortium
Posted: November 4, 2015
Today, A.T. Still University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona (ATSU-SOMA) was selected by the American Medical Association (AMA) to join the Association’s Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium, a dynamic group of medical schools which share best practices and ideas for developing innovative curricula that can ultimately be implemented in medical schools across the country. ATSU-SOMA was nominated by the AMA because of its approach to incorporating comprehensive community-based projects as part of its curriculum, empowering students to actively learn to assess the needs of the community through their second, third, and fourth year of medical school education while embedded in one of ATSU-SOMA’s 12 Community Health Center (CHC) campuses. The announcement was made by the AMA’s CEO James Madara, MD, and Susan Skochelak, MD, group vice president for medical education. The AMA announced a total of 20 leading medical schools from across the country, all of which landed a spot on the Association’s consortium, and were awarded a three-year grant totaling $75,000. “As an internist, public health researcher and former Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar, I have been gratified by the opportunity to combine primary care and public health training for our students and residents,” said principal investigator, Joy H. Lewis, DO, PhD, FACP, professor of internal medicine and public health, chair, ATSU-SOMA Department of Public Health. “We can teach trainees to address the many social and economic determinants of health by implementing Community Oriented Primary Care. Students need to know how to be investigators, to ask questions and to listen to patients and their communities. This is active learning at its best.” All second-year students are provided detailed instructions, tools, templates, evaluation rubrics, and continuous support, and work with CHC leadership and community members to develop, execute, and evaluate their own research, quality improvement, or community service projects. Projects vary and are focused on the needs of the communities and CHCs. Students who are embedded at the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center on Oahu, Hawaii work with a local school providing academic yearlong health and wellness education to third-and fourth-graders in what they have termed the “Mini Doc Program.” At El Rio Community Health Center in Tucson, Ariz., students work on a quality and process evaluation of a diabetes exercise and education program. According to the AMA, the 20 new schools will build upon the projects that were created by the 11 schools awarded grants by the AMA in 2013 and ultimately impact thousands of medical students across the nation currently being trained to care for patients in the rapidly changing health care environment. With the added schools, the now 32 school consortium will support training for an estimated 18,000 medical students who will one day care for 31 million patients each year. “Consortium membership will enable us to spotlight successful teaching strategies, enhance support for individual community projects, and dedicate additional resources to evaluating the knowledge, skills, and attitudes resulting from this contextual innovation,” said Dr. Lewis. “I appreciate this opportunity very much and look forward to sharing with, and learning from, the other members of the consortium. This cross-pollination will be invaluable for creating the providers of the future.” Through a competitive grant process, the schools were selected from among 170 eligible U.S. medical schools by a national advisory panel which sought proposals that would significantly redesign medical education. This is the first year an osteopathic medical school could apply to the initiative. Read the full AMA press release.