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. 2021 Feb 24;21(1):131.
doi: 10.1186/s12909-021-02533-x.

The design and implementation of a longitudinal social medicine curriculum at the University of Vermont's Larner College of Medicine

Raghav K Goyal #  1 , Christina A Dawson #  1 , Samuel B Epstein #  1 , Richard J Brach  1 , Sheridan M Finnie  1 , Karen M Lounsbury  1 , Timothy Lahey  2 , Shaden T Eldakar-Hein  1
Affiliations

The design and implementation of a longitudinal social medicine curriculum at the University of Vermont's Larner College of Medicine

Raghav K Goyal et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: Despite an abundant literature advocating that social determinants of health (SDH) be taught during undergraduate medical education, there are few detailed descriptions of how to design and implement longitudinal core curricula that is delivered to all students and accomplishes this goal.

Methods: In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a social medicine curriculum at the University of Vermont's Larner College of Medicine (UVM Larner). Using Kern's principles, we designed a longitudinal curriculum that extends through both preclinical and clinical training for all students and focused on integrating SDH material directly into basic science and clinical training.

Results: We successfully developed and implemented two primary tools, a "Social Medicine Theme of the Week" (SMTW) in preclinical training, and SDH rounds in the clinical setting to deliver SDH content to all learners at UVM Larner.

Conclusions: Extensive student-faculty partnerships, robust needs assessment, and focusing on longitudinal and integrated SDH content delivery to all students were key features that contributed to successful design and implementation.

Keywords: Clinical medical education; Health care; Health inequities; Medical education; Preclinical medical education; Racism; Social determinants of health; Undergraduate medical education.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Vermont Integrated Curriculum Pre and Post Social Medicine Intervention
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