Community-Based Education: Gerard Clancy, MD
Posted on April 9, 2008
Filed Under Medical Students, Medical (MD, DO)
With this interview, Student Doctor Network begins a new series of interviews relating to “community-based medical education” and with it a new forum on this subject. To launch the series, we interviewed Gerard Clancy, MD, the Dean of the newly established University of Oklahoma (OU) School of Community Medicine in Tulsa.
SDN: Dean Clancy, how do you envision your School of Community Medicine in Tulsa differing from a typical medical school?
Clancy: First, it is important to recognize that all the students in OU’s Community Medical School in Tulsa will graduate with the same MD degree as the students in OU’s traditionally organized medical school in Oklahoma City. They will learn the basic core information about medicine that they need to be successful as a physician.
But the information will be organized and taught in an entirely different way. Instead of being as a group of discrete subjects the subject matter will be organized around the principals of population medicine and community medicine.
SDN: Would you define those terms for our readers?
Clancy: Sure. Population medicine looks at the frequency of diseases and rates of mortality by disease, either for the general population or a particular subset of it (such as the residents of a geographical area, ethnicity, or income level). Community medicine would look at the disparities between one group and the population as a whole or perhaps another group.
SDN: For those persons not familiar with Oklahoma, is that a place where health disparities between communities are very pronounced?
Clancy: Although I am sure you will find health care disparities in communities everywhere in the United States, we were shocked when we began to study and then comprehend how great the differences in health status are from one part of Tulsa County to another. There is a high level of need throughout Eastern Oklahoma.
SDN: How will your medical school incorporate community medicine into the curriculum?
Clancy: First, we are recruiting faculty who are universally in agreement with the need to have medical students involved in providing care in communities of need from the earliest point in their education. We are collectively organizing a curriculum that “fast tracks” the students out of the medical school into community-based practice sites. As an additional feature, we will have a “loan repayment for service” plan that will give students the option for paying off their loans in a loan repayment system operated by the University of Oklahoma.
We have enlisted the help of experts nationally, and already have had retreats to develop our plans. Also, the new school is not being created out of thin air, but is being built on the existing University of Oklahoma medical school branch in Tulsa.
SDN: Are students to be involved in the development of plans for your school and its curriculum?
Clancy: Yes, OU medical students have been a driving force in creating the school. We have had high levels of student involvement in community health centers operated by the OU Medical School Tulsa Branch. They will continue to be involved in all the major elements of the plans.
SDN: Do funds exist to pay for all of these innovations?
Clancy: We have received a 50 million endowment, which includes 35 million to create endowed faculty positions, and an additional $15 million split between faculty recruitment and a loan repayment fund for the school’s medical students. As the school achieves success, and it will, we expect that our success will be recognized and our efforts supported by the people of Oklahoma and the alumni of the University of Oklahoma.
SDN: How will you implement these ideas?
Clancy: We are determined to select medical school classes that are truly interested in our approach to medical education – to learn the content of medicine, but to understand it in the context of the many factors that affect a person’s health. Those factors can include where the person lives, and how ethnicity, language and family situation.
SDN: Is there a way for persons interested in finding out more about your school?
Clancy: Yes, we will be very happy to respond to questions through the studentdoctor.net forums.
[ Visit the new SDN Community Medicine forum ]
Both myself and members of the OU faculty and student body expect to participate in the new studentdoctor.net forum on community-based medical education. We certainly will be interested in connecting with medical school applicants that share our vision of how physicians should be trained.
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9 Responses to “Community-Based Education: Gerard Clancy, MD”
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How are you planning on competeing with the medical school associated with Oklahoma State in Tulsa? From what I have read, a majority of their student class ends up matching into primary care and doing rural medicine.
Is this program open to out-of-state students or only OK residents?
Anon 1 - Yes, OSU COM, Oklahoma’s DO program, has a strong focus on developing rural access to medicine. That said, Oklahoma (as well as other states) is a good many years and physicians away from having the communities rural and metro needs met. Also, while OSU COM works hard to graduate students interested and trained in meeting the needs of the under-priviledged, a good number of their graduates match into specialties other than primary care, rural, underpriviledged metropolitian or otherwise.
Anon 2 - The press release and info that I found on OU Tulsa’s website indicates that out of state students will be included for selection into the program. Traditionally, OU’s out of state students have strong ties to Oklahoma, so I’m sure that will remain unchanged. They also noted that their admissions screening will include assessing for a desire to work in underserved areas (in OK). This also applies to instate applicants. Part of the tuition repayment program (intended as in incentive to keep bright young physicians from running from primary care toward so-called lifestyle specialties) requires a commitment to completing a designated number of years working in underserved areas. Google OU Tulsa College of Community Medicine and you’ll find much more info in greater detail.
Boomer Sooner!
How do you apply to this school? I couldn’t find any information on the website or AMCAS.
How about this type of interview with ATSU-SOMA, which conducts years 2-4 in community health centers across the US? That puts the “om” in community, imho.
We already have an ATSU-SOMA interview planned as part of this series.
How are students selected for the program? Additionally, when can interested student expected the first class of the OU School of Community Medicine to matriculate?
Thank you
How do envision the role of physician assistants in healthcare and in your medical school? They are truly untapped potential with so many of them having been through rigorous medical training in top medical schools of the nation, and achieving masters or higher degrees. Do you foresee accepting these highly skilled individuals on a “fast-track” program of some sort?
Here is some more information concerning the School of Community Medicine. We will add more over time, so please stay tuned.
Recruitment:
This new track at OU-Tulsa will gather the first group of students from the class matriculating in August 2008. The next interview/admission cycle (2008-09) will be the first to specifically recruit for tracks in community medicine, public health, research, and humanities. The first two tracks will be supported in Tulsa while the last two will be unique to OkC.
Financial incentive:
Specific plans for financial assistance are still being hammered out. However, it is a safe bet that OU-Tulsa College of Medicine, School of Community Medicine students will be provided grants to: pursue a concurrent MPH degree, fund international medicine experiences, support summer employment/learning between MS1 and MS2 years, and/or receive conditional tuition/fee waivers.
Curricular content:
What areas will this school emphasize along with the traditional M.D. coursework? Our students will become familiar with applied epidemiology, decision analysis/health economics, evidence-based healthcare, disease management, medical informatics, bioethics, health policy, role of physician leadership, environmental health, health disparities, medical geography, organizational behavior, emergency preparedness, complex adaptive systems, special populations, advocacy, and cultural competency. Many schools across the country have outstanding centers and programs from one or more of these disciplines. We will address them all, weaving these educational objectives throughout the four-year curriculum.
Experiential learning in community medicine will be stressed, just as the clinical clerkships require hands-on learning. Our university and community supports the entire range of practice settings from tertiary care hospitals to free clinics. We have community health centers, school-based clinics, and not-for-profit health and human service agencies.
Ultimately, we will strive to educate physicians who will train in all specialties and then enter practice with a point of view toward addressing health needs of the community through clinical service AND leadership in policy, community intervention, interdisciplinary work, and organization. This approach may better serve communities through prioritizing needs, reducing health disparities, enhancing “systemness”, and improving efficiency.