title: Reuniting public health and medicine: the University of New Mexico School of Medicine Public Health Certificate.
abstract: The University of New Mexico School of Medicine (UNMSOM) sought to train medical students in public health concepts, knowledge, and skills as a means of improving the health of communities statewide. Faculty members from every UNMSOM department collaborated to create and integrate a public health focus into all years of the medical school curriculum. They identified key competencies and developed new courses that would synchronize students' learning public health subjects with the mainstream medical school content. New courses include: Health Equity: Principles of Public Health; Epidemiology and Biostatistics; Evidence-Based Practice; Community-Based Service Learning; and Ethics in Public Health. Students experiencing the new courses, first in pilot and then final forms, gave high quantitative ratings to all courses. Some students' qualitative comments suggest that the Public Health Certificate has had a profound transformative effect. Instituting the integrated Public Health Certificate at UNMSOM places it among the first medical schools to require all its medical students to complete medical school with public health training. The new UNMSOM Public Health Certificate courses reunite medicine and public health in a unified curriculum.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Veterans Administration Medical Center, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA.
authors.forename: Cynthia M A
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Geppert
authors.forename: Cynthia L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Arndell
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Clithero
authors.forename: Lily A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Dow-Velarde
authors.forename: Jonathan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Eldredge
authors.forename: Jonathan P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Eldredge
authors.forename: Summers
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kalishman
authors.forename: Arthur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kaufman
authors.forename: Martha C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: McGrew
authors.forename: Tiffany M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Snyder
authors.forename: Brian G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Solan
authors.forename: Craig T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Timm
authors.forename: Kristine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tollestrup
authors.forename: Lana K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.forename: William H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Wiese
authors.forename: Charles L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Wiggins
authors.forename: Ellen M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Cosgrove
mesh_terms: D002568:Certification; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003479:Curriculum; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005180:Faculty, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D009516:New Mexico; D011634:Public Health / Q000193:education*; D012577:Schools, Medical; D013337:Students, Medical