Outline: Community Health

Directors

Janine Bruce, DrPH, MPH 

David Chang, MD, DrPH

Objectives and Goals

Community Health is one of the eight Scholarly Concentration Foundations. Students are exposed to the important social and environmental determinants of health and develop pragmatic methodological skills in community assessment, evaluation, and research. The Community Health curriculum empowers future physicians to improve the health of diverse communities and reduce health inequities through innovative scholarship and direct community engagement.

 

Students choose a path of critical community engagement. Students will engage in rigorous and longitudinal community-responsive scholarship with established community-campus partners to assess and reduce health inequities among local underserved communities. Students take elective courses specific to that path and engage in investigative work for their scholarly project.

Requirements

Students who pursue the Scholarly Concentration in Community Health solely or in conjunction with an application (i.e. Immunology, Global Health, Prevention Research), are required to complete a total of 12 units. If you are pursuing an application, the 6 units of elective course will be taken in the application area.

 

1. PEDS 250: The Social and Environmental Determinants of Health (3 units)

2. AND one of the following methods courses:

·       PEDS 202C: Qualitative Research Methods and Study Design (3 units)

·       MED 247: Methods in Community Assessment, Evaluation and Research (3 units)

·       HRP 258: Introduction to Probability and Statistics for Clinical Research (3 units)

·       Other methods course: If a student believes another methods course is more applicable to their project, a “written request” must be submitted to the Foundation Director for approval prior to taking the course. The request must include justification for why this course is needed to conduct the scholarly project.

3. AND a section elective courses (6 units):

  • Community Health Option: For students interested in completing all 12 units in Community Health, the 6 elective units can be selected based upon specific interests and preferences.
  • Application Option: For students interested in pursuing an application, the 6 elective units will be determined by the application director (i.e. Immunology, International Health).