Scholarly Concentration in Community Health

Scholarly Concentration: Community Health

Directors

Janine Bruce, DrPH, MPH
Senior Research Scholar
Executive Director, Office of Child Health Equity
Department of Pediatrics
jsbruce@stanford.edu

David Chang, MD, DrPH
Clinical Assistant Professor
Medicine - Primary Care and Population Health
changds@stanford.edu

Student Leadership

Anjali Gupta
MD Student - Year 3

Aakriti Neopaney
MD Student - Year 2

Community Health Scholarly Concentration Interest Form

Overview

Health systems and academic medicine, like many other institutions, have unintentionally developed and sustained structural inequities. To advance health equity, future physician leaders need to be trained to understand the root causes of poor health and ethically engage with communities to effectively address these drivers of health. There is significant evidence that environmental factors and social factors influence health behaviors and health outcomes more than access to care or the quality of the existing health care delivery system.

The Community Health Scholarly Concentration encourages the development of physicians with the commitment and capacity to become effective life-long leaders in health disparities research, community engagement, and health policy advocacy.

Program Description

Objectives and Goals

The Community Health Scholarly Concentration is one of the eight foundation areas. It provides future physicians with the knowledge and skills necessary to address the social and environmental determinants of health and gain a broad understanding of the context and practice of health care among diverse and underserved communities. These foundational concepts can be applied to many areas of primary care, population health, and subspeciality medicine, as health inequities are their drivers are present in every field of medicine.

Addressing such inequities often requires developing and sustaining deep collaborative partnerships with both community and policy partners. Unique to this concentration is the opportunity to thoughtfully engage with interdisciplinary partners to address partner-identified needs and priorities. Students in this concentration have required coursework and participation in a community health scholarly project with a focus on addressing social determinants of health and health inequities.

Scholarly Project & Deliverables

The overarching focus of all of the projects in this foundation area is a focus on health disparities. Students work with Stanford Faculty Advisors and community partners to develop a rigorous and longitudinal community-responsive project to address health inequities among underserved communities. Students may also choose to work with a faculty member to conduct health services research projects that explore health inequities through analysis of large

Identifying Faculty and Community Partners

Please consult with the SCCH Directors regarding the development of a community-engaged project and finding appropriate faculty mentorship. Community Health research projects typically involve longitudinal partnerships with community partners. Faculty often guide student engagement with community partners and they will help make connections and develop partnerships. In some cases, students will identify partners and develop partnerships. In these cases, students will still need a Stanford faculty to oversee the project.

Project deliverables

Project Proposal (Due prior to project engagement; Typically Spring of MS-Y1). Proposals should be submitted to SCCH Directors to review and approve.
1. Not all students are required to complete an original research project. However, if you choose to do so, the required proposal can be your Medical Scholars Proposal.
Final Project Presentation (Due prior to SC completion). Presentations may include local/national conferences, Stanford Med Student Research Day, Office of Community Engagement Community Health Symposium, and other Stanford research conferences. Presentations may also be presented directly to community partners. Your faculty mentor and/or SCCH Director must be present to receive credit for this presentation.
Final SC Completion Report and Summary (Due prior to SC completion). Students are required to submit a final report detailing their results from their community-engaged project. A draft, submitted, or accepted manuscript can fulfill this requirement if applicable. This written summary must be submitted to your faculty mentor and SCCH Director for review and approval of successful completion of your scholarly project. The summary should include the following:
1. SC project concept
2. Project results
3. How and what products/data were shared back with partners
4. Lessons learned from community-engagement,
5. Next steps for the project/collaboration (if applicable)
6. Recommendations (e.g., feedback regarding mentor selection, coursework related to the project, what you would do differently in hindsight).

Course Work

Students who pursue the Scholarly Concentration in Community Health solely or in conjunction with an application (e.g., Women's Health, Global Health, Prevention Research, REACH Health Equity & Social Justice), are required to complete a total of 12 coursework units. Students undertaking both a Foundation Area and an Application Area complete 6 units in each area. *See Explore Courses for complete course descriptions.

Overview of Required Courses

1. PEDS 250: Advancing Health Equity: Exploring Social Determinants of Health and multi-sector Solutions (3 units)

Note: If a student has successfully completed a masters in public health or a similar masters degree they may discuss opting out of PEDS250 with the SCCH Directors. Students must still take 3 units of coursework to fulfill the 12 unit scholarly concentration requirement.

2. AND one 3 unit methods courses:

MED 247: Methods in Community Assessment, Evaluation and Research (3 units)
PEDS 202C: Qualitative Research Methods and Study Design (3 units)
PEDS 202A and 202B: Practical Applications for Qualitative Data Analysis (Aut, Win; 2 course series; 3 units each)
HRP 258: Introduction to Probability and Statistics for Clinical Research (3 units)
Note: If a student believes another methods course is more applicable to their project, please discuss with the SCCH Directors prior to taking the course and include justification for why this course is needed to conduct the scholarly project.
Note: Student may not take multiple 1-2 unit methods courses to fulfill this requirement

3. AND a selection of elective courses totaling 6 units. Course options include, but are not limited to:

BIOE 375: Biodesign and Entrepreneurship for Societal Health (MED 236)
EDUC 193P: Peer Counseling at the Bridge
EMED 134: The Impact of Climate Change on Human Health
FAMMED 245: Women and Health Lecture Series
HRP 272 (CHPR 227): The Science of Community Engagement in Health Research
INDE 215: Queer Health and MedicineINDE 280: Student Community Outreach and Physician Support (S-CORPS)
INDE 290: Walk With Me: A Patient and Family Engaged Exploration of Health & The Health Care System
LAW 808D/SUSTAIN 329: Policy Practicum: Smoke: Wildfire Science and Policy Lab
MED 212: Methods for Health Care Delivery Innovation, Implementation, and Evaluation
MED 219: Housing Equity & Intro to Community-led Case Management
MED 237: Health Law: Improving Public Health
MED 242: Human Rights and Health
MED 243: Citizen Science Theory to Practice: Advancing Community-Driven Solutions for Health
MED 244: Introduction to Integrative Medicine
MED 268: Tackling Asian-American Health Challenges
MED 269: Health Equity Advancement and Leadership Through Community Engagement (HEAL-CE)
MED 282: Early Clinical Experience at the Cardinal Free Clinics
MED 296: Being Mortal: Medicine, Mortality and Caring for Older Adults
PEDS 220: Covid-19 Elective
PEDS 229: Reducing Health Disparities and Closing the Achievement Gap through Health Integration in Schools
PSYC 225: Mentorship and Clinical Engagement in Child/Adolescent and Adult Psychiatry
SPANLANG 110SL/HUMRTS 110: Advanced Spanish Service Learning: Campus Workers' Health and Empowerment Outreach
SURG 234: Service Through Surgery: Surgeons with an Impact

Note: Students also may choose to build on their course work in the pursuit of a Master’s degree in Public Health, as a joint degree program between Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley. Any course taken in pursuit of a joint degree will count toward the 12 elective units.

Faculty Advisors

Emergency Medicine

Italo Brown

Ewen Wang

Epidemiology & Population Health

Alyce Adams

Lisa Goldman-Rojas

Julie Parsonnet (also with Infectious Diseases)

David Rehkopf

Patricia Rodriguez Espinosa

Medicine, Primary Care & Population Health

David Chang