MD/Masters Program in Health Equity

REACH Scholars in Health Equity MD/Masters Program

The REACH Scholars in Health Equity Program is a 5 year MD/Masters program that is committed to developing a cohort of physician-leaders with the skills and resources to promote Social Justice and Health Equity.

The program will encompass the entirety of the student’s medical school education. The program will fully fund tuition and stipend to complete a one year masters program of the student’s choice. REACH Scholars in Health Equity programming will provide a foundation in theory; exposure to a wide range of content areas and methodologies; as well as the tools to translate scholarship into advocacy and action. The program will also provide community, mentorship, and networking opportunities.

We envision that the REACH Scholars in Health Equity will have a wide range of subject area interests and scholarly expertise focused by the common lens of Health Equity. We envision creating a vibrant community of Scholars who will continue to support each other throughout their careers. We will work in synergy with the other REACH initiatives to train a cohort of physicians with a commitment to promote social justice and health equity.

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Contact

For more information contact:

Dr. Ewen Wang, Program Director: ewen@stanford.edu

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Five-year REACH Scholars in Health Equity MD/Master Program Timeline

2023 fall cohort: MD students matriculating in the fall of 2023 (SMSI) will be given precedent, however we may consider, on a case-by-case basis, 2nd or even 3rd year students committed to the REACH Scholar in Health Equity vision. We anticipate students entering in later years might not be able to complete the programming as laid out below and will work with chosen students individually to provide a solid foundation, community, and mentoring.

Training and career development program for all REACH Scholars in Health Equity

Health Equity Programming

Preclinical programming has the objectives of: fostering community, providing theoretical foundations, content and research method exposure, and experience in the area of social justice and health equity research.

Students will participate in the REACH Scholar in Health Equity Research seminar series.
Students will choose a scholarly concentration area from which to approach health equity and take the scholarly concentration introductory seminar and methods coursework.
Students are highly encouraged to take the REACH Health Equity and Social Justice scholarly concentration application core course (Med269A).
Students will complete a research project focused on Health Equity during the MS1 summer (anticipated funding from Medical Scholars program).

Advanced programming has the objectives of: fostering community, building lifelong networks and learning how to translate research into action e.g., leadership, communication and advocacy training.

Preclinical Health Equity Programming

Required coursework:

REACH Scholar in Health Equity Seminar Series I– (3 total units - 1 unit each for autumn, winter, and spring quarters). Preclinical seminar
REACH Scholar in Health Equity Seminar Series II – (3 total units - 1 unit each for autumn, winter, and spring quarters).
MED 269: REACH Health Equity and Social Justice SC - Core Course (2-3 units, winter quarter of first year of medical school)
INDE 267 - Planning and Writing a Research Proposal (1 unit, winter quarter of first year of medical school)
SPEC370 Medscholars Research – summer of first year
Other coursework is tailored to the student’s chosen Scholarly Concentration and anticipated Masters plan of study with strong encouragement to take fundamental methods courses

Advising and Mentoring:

Mentoring to identify a PI and to write a grant for a Medscholars project (summer of first year)
Mentoring/support to apply to a chosen Masters program (second preclinical year)
Reach Scholars / Masters program research in progress (RIP) sessions (timing and format to be determined)
Formal program-wide mentorship program (format to be determined)

Reach Scholar Community Events:

Annual REACH Scholar welcome/orientation
Annual REACH Scholar retreat
Student-led social events including, lunches, dinners, and other gatherings
REACH and ODME events as available/scheduled

Masters Program Choice and Application

Students will identify and apply to the masters program from which they wish to focus their health equity scholarship. All programs must be at Stanford, unless Stanford does not have the program of study e.g., Masters of Public Health. The masters program, will start after the preclinical years and passing STEP 1 exam. We anticipate students will enroll after the 2nd year of medical school, but we are open to enrollment after a year of clinical experience.

Masters Program Areas of Study

The REACH Scholar in Health Equity Research MD/Masters Program will fully fund accepted students to pursue a one year Masters degree in a variety of disciplines in addition to their MD degrees, including but not limited to:

Biomedical informatics: https://med.stanford.edu/bmi.html

Community Health and Prevention Research: https://prevention.stanford.edu/education/chpr.html

Epidemiology and Clinical Research: https://med.stanford.edu/epidemiology-dept/education/graduate-programs/MS-overview2/MS-requirements.html

Clinical Informatics Management: https://med.stanford.edu/master-clinical-informatics-management.html

Health Policy: https://healthpolicy.fsi.stanford.edu/content/ms-health-policy

Translational Research and Applied Medicine: https://med.stanford.edu/tram/education-and-resources/masters-program.html

Other Masters programs at Stanford will be considered with strong rationale for the proposed plan of study with health equity scholarship. Students would work with the program director to create a fulfilling program of study between the department of interest and the REACH Scholars in Health Equity Research Program.

Masters of Public Health will be the only degree allowed outside of Stanford at the Berkeley School of Public health: https://publichealth.berkeley.edu/academics/interdisciplinary/interdisciplinary-mph/

*Students involved in basic science masters program are invited to be part of the REACH Scholar program; however alternative mechanisms to pay for the masters program (Berg scholars) will be utilized.

Students who receive other funded opportunities to earn a masters degree (such as Knight Hennesey) will also be required to use this funding source, but if accepted to the program, will be invited to participate in REACH Scholars in Health Equity programming.

Masters Program Year

Masters course work and research hours are anticipated to take one full-time year and possibly a few additional months interspersed with the last year of clerkships. (Students in the past have often finished their masters thesis during the last clinical year, concurrent with away rotations and match applications). In order to obtain the masters degree, students must fulfill all requirements of the degree program in which they enroll. It is our intention that some of the REACH programming could fulfill masters programs required courses and electives so that students will not be subject to duplicative coursework. The masters program year would include REACH Research in Progress sessions as well as program activities as allowed by schedule.

Details

Masters programs have typically 45 units of required coursework and thesis/research units. (Note that medical scholars units do not count towards the masters thesis units). The units are typically broken down into:

Core units:

Per masters program
Scholarly concentration introductory and methods courses e.g., biostatistics, epidemiology and/or qualitative methods may fulfill some of these requirements

Thesis/research work:

MedScholars units cannot count towards a degree program’s research credits, however we anticipate it will provide a foundation or direction for masters research

Departmental seminars - per masters program

Elective course work - variable units per masters program

We would expect the MED 269: REACH Health Equity and Social Justice SC - Core Course (2-3 unit) would count as an elective for most masters degrees
Some SC courses may fulfill some of these electives

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