Health of the Public - Wichita

This required four-week course offers senior medical students the opportunity to work at a clinic or agency on a service-based project in community-oriented primary care. Students may select a project on population-based health care, health care finance, quality of and access to medical care, or occupational and environmental medicine. Lectures and workshops augment the on-site activity.

PVMD 975 Health of the Public (4). This required clerkship is designed to instruct fourth-year medical students about population-based approaches to health care and to facilitate the application of epidemiologic principles to clinical decision making. Using some of the basic concepts described under the auspices of community oriented primary care, students will learn how to define specific populations, ascertain their health care needs, formulate interventions to meet those needs and evaluate the impact of those interventions. These concepts will be developed and reinforced as the student moves through a series of modules designed to provide learning opportunities about health services organization and delivery, community dimensions of medical practice, occupational and environmental medicine, health care finance, access to medical care, and quality of medical care. These modules will include didactic teachings supplemented by course reading material and workshops that involve case studies and site visits. This clerkship will allow the student to examine what it means for a physician to be part of a community and to explore the role that the community plays in the health of an individual. Prerequisite: Completion of third-year medical school curriculum. CLN