The Program’s Goals:
- To enhance the abilities of its graduates, as practicing physicians, to interact with local, state, and national health care systems and professional organization to improve the care delivered to patients; and
- To enhance their abilities to become leaders of health care organizations and to develop effective health care policies at the local, state, and national levels.
WHY DO WE STUDY HEALTH SYSTEMS?
- The design of a health care system impacts the health outcome of clients.
- The design of a health care system reflects a society’s responses to key questions about its view of social support and other systems.
- Understanding health systems promotes professional functions and behaviors.
- Understanding health systems is a prerequisite for understanding health system issues.
- Understanding health systems is a prerequisite for meaningful involvement in health system change.
After completing the first two years of medical school, the students will enroll as full-time students in the College of Graduate Health Sciences for one year. The curriculum during that year will build on the core concepts introduced during the previous two years. This will include courses covering quantitative aspects of population health, health economics, health policy and politics, organizational behavior and leadership, and health system management.
Students will then return to the College of Medicine to complete the last two, clinical years of the medical school curriculum. During each of these years, students will participate in activities emphasizing the application of what they have learned to the “real world” of health care. This will include a monthly journal club during the fourth year of the program for students to discuss recent research articles on important health care topics. In the last year, the students will undertake a two month capstone experience as either a research project under the guidance of a faculty member or as a practicum in one of the University’s affiliated health care organizations.
Teaching methods throughout the curriculum will emphasize active learning, using team-based projects and case discussions, and will include internet-based on-line activities and student-led seminars in addition to traditional classroom sessions.
Students: The program is available only to students enrolled in the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. All students in this program must first be admitted to the College of Medicine through its usual admission procedures. Students will apply to this dual degree program during the fall semester of medical school and will join this program at the beginning of the spring semester of their first year in medical school. The application process will include an interview and a short essay. Graduate Record Examinations are not required. Enrollment will be limited to 10 students per year.
Cost of Program: Students will pay the full tuition and fees of the College of Medicine during the first two and last two years of the five-year program. During the third year that is committed to graduate studies, students will be enrolled in the College of Graduate Health Sciences and will pay the tuition and fees of that College.