Teaching Population Health: An Essential Component of Context in Medical Education IAMSE June 8,...

Teaching Population Health: An Essential Component of Context

in Medical EducationIAMSE

June 8, 2014

Heidi Gullett, MD, MPHAssistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health

Population Health Liaison, Cuyahoga County Board of Health

Amy Wilson-Delfosse, PhDAssociate Professor of Pharmacology

Assistant Dean for Basic Science Education

Disclosures• No Financial Disclosures

Focus Session Objectives

1. Articulate the importance of teaching population health concepts in undergraduate medical education.

2. Define 2-3 essential components of population health education for medical students.

3. Describe the value of community-based learning experiences to underscore the concepts in a population health curriculum.

4. Describe 1-2 specific ways that population health could be integrated into an attendee’s curriculum.

Workshop Overview• Workshop Participant Assessment• Population Health and Professional Competencies• Overview of CWRU Curriculum and Block 1

– Block 1 Goals and Philosophy– Block 1 Structure and Content – Epidemiology and Biostatistics

• Discussion around integration of specific population health curricular elements– Content– Teaching techniques– Faculty selection– Curricular timing– Challenges

Welcome!• Name• School• Role• Please tell us something fun you plan to do this

summer.• What do you hope to gain from this workshop?• What is a specific area of interest you would

like addressed in this workshop?

What is Population Health• Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)1

– “Any group of individuals for whom consideration of health or health care at the level of the group is likely to advance health.”

• Dr. Kindig’s definition:2

– “The health outcomes of a group of individuals, including distribution of such outcomes within the group.”

• Concerned with outcomes, as well as determinants and factors, in an effort to define the “distribution of health”

• Evolving definition1www.ihi.org2Kindig DA, Stoddard G. What is population health? Am J Public Health 2003; 93:366-369.

Tools of Population Health• Epidemiology/Biostatistics• Disease surveillance• Data analysis• Education• Advocacy• Policy • Program design and evaluation• Research• Environmental Health• Genetic epidemiology• Process and outcome measures• Quality improvement• Community health and health impact assessments• Bioethics

Teaching Population Health from Various Perspectives

• Context depends upon perspective• Community• Patient• Public Health (Local, Regional, National,

International)• Provider • Payor• Government

Why Focus on Population Health?• Competencies and Certification Exams– Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME)– Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical

Education (ACGME)– National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME)– Specialty Boards

• Context for medical training and career– Rapidly changing healthcare environment– More broad understanding of determinants of health– Practical introduction to students’ new community

Why Focus on Population Health?• Much work of population health performed by local

public health• Public health and clinical care most often function in

isolation• A move toward integration is critical to improve health– Institute of Medicine 2012 Report• Primary Care and Public Health: Exploring Integration

to Improve Population Health

IOM Report 2012

LCME Competencies• Population Health and Civic

Professionalism– Identifies community and population-based

health issues– Demonstrates skills needed to improve health

and healthcare for local, national, and global communities

LCME Competencies• Educational Program Objectives and Milestones for

Graduation– Applies primary and secondary prevention strategies that

improve the health of individuals and populations.– Demonstrates ability to design community-based health

improvement intervention.– Integrates emerging information on individuals’ biologic

and genetic risk with population-level factors when deciding upon prevention and treatment options.

– Considers ethical and legal perspectives, patient advocacy, health policy, and public health concerns in clinical care.

ACGME Competencies• Consistent with Milestone Project for all

specialties• Six Core Competencies– Patient Care– Medical Knowledge– Practice-based Learning and Improvement– Interpersonal and Communication Skills– Professionalism– Systems-based Practice

In your institutions…• How do you teach these competencies?– Separate courses?– Integrated within other courses?– Other?

An Introduction to Block 1:Becoming A Doctor

• Created as part of overall curricular revision in 2004• Concentrated 5 weeks at beginning of medical school

(July-mid August)• Opportunity to create a comprehensive

understanding of population health principles• Create foundation upon which to build throughout

next 4 years– Other preclinical blocks– Tuesday seminars (Foundations of Clinical Medicine)– Core clinical rotations (including IQ+)

Population Health in the WR2 Curriculum

• “Fundamental curricular revision” in 2004• Two major goals:

1. Create opportunity for all students to conduct meaningful research culminating in required medical student thesis

2. Three areas create “backbone” of curriculum• Mastery of clinical skills• Civic professionalism

– Understanding systems and population health are critical to effective civic professionalism.

• Leadership

Year I Year II Year III Year IV

Foundations of Medicine and Health

(20 months, including vacation)

BASIC SCIENCES

PHYSICAL DIAGNOSIS

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

COMMUNITY PATIENT CARE PRECEPTORSHIP

(CPCP)

Core Clinical Rotations

IQ+ Program

(48 weeks, flexible scheduling)

Research &

Scholarship

(16 week block +

electives, flexible

scheduling)

Advanced Clinical and Scientific

Studies

Areas of Concentration

Electives

(10 months, flexible scheduling)

Western Reserve2 Curriculum

Slide courtesy of Scott Frank, MD, MS

CWRU School of MedicineUniversity Track Basic Science Curriculum

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July Year 1 March Year 2

Homeostasis

(14 wk)

Host Defense and Host Response

(14 wk)

Cognition, Sensation, and

Movement

(14 wk)

Food to Fuel

(11 wk)

(Host Defense, Microbiology,

Blood, Skin,Auto-immune)

(Endo, Repro, Development, Genetics, Mol Biol, Cancer

Biology)

(GI, Nutrition, Energy,

Metabolism, Biochemistry)

(Neuro, MindMusculoskeletal,

Cellular Neurophysiology

(CV, Pulm, Renal, Cell

Regulation, Pharmacology, Cell

physiology)

The Human Blueprint

(11 wk)

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1 Week Clinical

Immersion

1 Week Clinical

Immersion

1 Week Clinical

Immersion

1 Week Clinical

Immersion

1 Week Clinical

Immersion

(Public Health, Inequities, QI/Patient

Safety/Medical Error, Bioethics, Professionalism

Epi/Biostats)

Becoming a Doctor

(5 wk)

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Structure (Anatomy, Histo-Path, Radiology)

Foundations of Clinical Medicine

Slide courtesy of Scott Frank, MD, MS

Block 1 Goals1. Provide a strong epidemiology and biostatistics

foundation to support effective application in clinical practice and interpretation of the scientific literature.

2. Illustrate effective means to understand, measure, and affect the health of populations.

3. Provide a basis for understanding social, behavioral, structural, and environmental determinants of health.

4. Provide a broad understanding of health systems.5. Emphasize continuous process and system

improvement as a mechanism for limiting medical error and improving both individual and population outcomes.





4. Provide a broad understanding of health systems.5. Emphasize continuous process and system improvement

as a mechanism for limiting medical error and improving both individual and population outcomes.





4. Provide a broad understanding of health systems.5. Emphasize continuous process and system

improvement as a mechanism for limiting medical error and improving both individual and population outcomes.

Block 1 Philosophy: The Lens• Create a strong foundation on which to build during the

remainder of medical school.• Create context for understanding health in a broad

sense.– Foundation includes teaching how to measure,

understand, and affect the health of populations– Foster integration of concepts learned in all activities

• Goal to coordinate with other faculty curricular leaders to ensure a cohesive curriculum that serves our students and community well.

Intentional emphasis on…

• Interprofessional importance, team-based practice

• Diverse faculty: training, expertise, specialty, experience

• Representation across Cleveland: local health departments and health systems

• Highlight tremendous community health work in our area to solidify concepts taught throughout the block

Block 1 Weekly ThemesProblem-

based Learning (IQ)

CaseUnnatural

Causes

Community Field

ExperiencesTeam-Based

LearningWeek 1 Population Health Pandemic Flu In Sickness and

in Wealth; Not Just a Paycheck

Week 2 Determinants of Health Toni Jackson: Determinants of Health

When the Bough Breaks; Place Matters

Determinants of Health/Social Work

Population Health

Week 3 Health Systems Mr. Prince: Medical Error

Collateral Damage; Becoming American

Community Health Center/Safety Net

Global Health System Comparisons

Week 4 Patient-centered care Mrs. Sanchez: Diabetes Mellitus

Bad Sugar Chronic Disease

Week 5 “Bringing It All Together” Jack Lee: Well Adult Care

Integration of Curricular Content

• Goal to foster reflection and integration of core concepts across the block

• Multiple venues to encourage connection of various learning activities with each IQ case– Google+ Field Experience reflection posts

• Cases are correlated with the weekly theme

Highlights of longitudinal curricular threads

• Health promotion step challenge• Bioethics thread across block• Google+ field experience reflection blog• Online modules (IHI, APTR*)• Unnatural causes: Is Inequality Making Us

Sick?• Epidemiology/Biostatistics

*IHI = Institute for Healthcare Improvement; APTR = Association for Prevention Teaching and Research

Health Promotion Step Challenge• Goal: To illustrate health behavior activity,

continuous process improvement• Foster friendly competition and camaraderie• Faculty and staff participation• Prizes

• Top PBL (IQ) group• Top individuals (staff /faculty and students)• Students who achieve average of 10,000 steps every day

= 280,000 steps

2013 IQ Winner!

2013 Individual Winner!

Bioethics

• Incorporation into key elements of Block 1:• Two general Bioethics introductory sessions – Week 1• Pandemic flu exercise – Week 1• Incorporation into individual v. population health

didactics (theory) – Week 1• Health disparities – Week 2• Field experiences (practical application) – Weeks 2-4• IQ discussions – Weeks 2-4

Field Experiences

• Determinants of Health/Social Work• Community Health Center/Safety Net• Chronic Disease• Neighborhood Correlations • PBL (IQ) facilitators receive guide for each

week with trigger questions to facilitate Google+ posts and small group discussion

Google+• Field experiences– Social work– Community health center/safety net providers– Chronic disease

• Google+ IQ group pages (“communities” – hidden and secure) for reflection blogs to facilitate integrated discussion during IQ sessions

• IQ student leaders asked to protect time in Friday session for discussion

Online modules

• IHI Quality Improvement– Option for certificate of completion though IHI– Free for enrolled US medical students

• Association for Prevention Teaching and Research (APTR)– Population Health– Public Health Learning

Unnatural Causes

• Health disparities documentary series– 4 hours, 7 episodes– Associated health policy exercises for all

stakeholders regarding health equity– www.unnaturalcauses.org

Organization of Epi/Biostats Curriculum• Total of 11 hours of class time

• Large-group lectures with interactive answering options

• Background of core concepts– Epidemiology– Biostatistics– Introduction to clinical study designs

• Critical evaluation of studies– Practice using “journal club”

Slide courtesy of Doug Einstadter, MD, MPH

EpidemiologyTopics Covered

• Introduction to Epidemiology• Association and Cause• Samples and populations• Use and interpretation of diagnostic tests• The role of screening and prevention


BiostatisticsTopics Covered• Types of Data

• Descriptive Statistics

• Hypothesis testing

• Chance and the p-value

• Confidence Intervals

• Potential errors (Type I and II)

• Power


Study Designs Introduced:• Cross-sectional studies• Case-Control studies• Cohort studies• Randomized Controlled Trials

Journal Club(s) to practice critical review skills.

Critical Evaluation Skills


Block 1 Student Assessment

• Weekly during block:– Short essay questions– Multiple choice questions– IQ facilitator feedback on reflections and

participation in PBL (IQ) sessions• Following completion of block:– Essay questions

Discussion

• Small group discussion on the following areas of population health integration (30 min):– Content– Teaching techniques– Faculty selection– Timing in curriculum

• Small groups report on 1-2 ideas for population health curricular integration in your programs

Discussion• Teaching Content– Concept of population health– Tools for understanding and applying population

health principles– Epidemiology/Biostatistics– Determinants of health– Health systems • Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act implications

– Quality improvement– Integration with basic science concepts

Discussion

• Teaching Techniques– Problem-based learning (IQ)– Team-based learning (TBL)– Pandemic flu tabletop exercise (medium-sized group

activity)– Field experiences– Google+/Social Media Tools

• Reflection• Encouragement of participation

– Online modules– Documentary series

Discussion

• Faculty Selection– Content expertise– Student exposure to interprofessional nature of

population and community health– Local laboratory for understanding and applying

population health principles: Future research options• Cuyahoga County Board of Health population health expertise• Other local health departments• Better Health Greater Cleveland multi-stakeholder collaborative• Health Improvement Partnership-Cuyahoga

– Other considerations?

Discussion

• Timing in Curriculum– Early inclusion of principles– Relevance and variable interest among entering

students– Timing of relevance evaluation– Changing content• Evolving field of population health• Rapidly changing health policy

– New session in 2014 on Medicaid expansion and PPACA impact within Cuyahoga County

Discussion

• Challenges– Variable uptake for students from diverse

backgrounds– Lack of context for some entering medical

students– Timing challenges for interprofessional activities– Large number of meaningful community field

experience sites are necessary

Block 1 in the LiteratureOrnt DB, Aron DC, King NB, Clementz LM, Frank SH, Wolpaw T, Wilson-Delfosse A, Wolpaw D, Allan T, Carroll M, Thompson- Shaheen K, Altose M, Horwitz R. Population Medicine in a Curricular Revision at Case Western Reserve. Academic Medicine, 2008; 83 327-331

Carney JK, Schilling LM, Frank SH, Biddinger PD, Bertsch, TF, Grace CJ, Finkelstein JA. Planning and Incorporating Public Health Preparedness Into the Medical Curriculum. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2011;41 (4S3):S193-S199

Frank SH. Principles for Authentic Population Health. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2011;41 (4S3):S152-S154

Thank you!

Please feel free to contact me [email protected]

Teaching Population Health: An Essential Component of Context in Medical Education IAMSE June 8,...

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