Welcome to the Colorado Springs Branch

A: In 2016, the Colorado Springs Branch (CSB) was established as the first Regional Medical Campus for the University of Colorado School of Medicine (CUSOM).  The CSB matches up to 24 students each year who complete their core clinical rotations in Colorado Springs in our Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) model. For the Class of 2025, the core clinical year will take place during year 2 of medical school during the Foothills portion of the new Trek Curriculum at CUSOM.

The vision for the CSB since its inception is to develop 21st Century physician leaders who will deliver high value care to patients and improve the health of the community. This vision is in alignment with the vision for the new Trek curriculum at CUSOM which states that our graduates will be physician leaders capable of transforming the health of diverse communities.

For more information on Regional Medical Campuses in the United States and Canada, click on (“Regional Medical Campuses: A New Classification System")

A: To help develop the next generation of physician leaders, the CSB has transformed and integrated medical education and health care delivery systems through our Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) model.  In addition, the CSB curriculum has provided extra emphasis on leadership development and community engagement through our Community Leadership Curriculum, Partnership Education Action (PEAK) projects, Quality Improvement (QI) projects, and other community-based, service-learning curricula.

For the Class of 2025, the CSB will provide two LIC experiences for students in the new Trek Curriculum. One LIC (consisting of 12 students) will have a primary focus on serving vulnerable populations through a modification of our Community Leadership Curriculum and PEAK projects. The other LIC (consisting of 12 students) will have a primary focus on developing and implementing longitudinal QI projects in their clinical settings.

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A: The CSB accepts up to 24 students per class who will complete their core clinical rotations in Colorado Springs.  For the Class of 2025, students who are interested in joining one of the LICs at the CSB can indicate their formal interest after being offered and after accepting admission to CUSOM (students can also indicate an interest in the CU-CSU Fort Collins Branch or the Rural Program after acceptance to CUSOM). Interest expressed by an applicant in the CSB (or other LIC/branch programs) does not impact the admissions decision to CUSOM.

More details on the admissions and selection process will be provided by the Office of Admissions and during the interview day.

A: Since 2016, CSB students have participated in the Colorado Springs Mentored Integrated Curriculum (COSMIC), our version of the Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) model.  In compliance with LCME accreditation standards, all CSB students are evaluated based on the same learning objectives, goals, competencies, and clinical conditions as all other students at CUSOM.  

In COSMIC, CSB students spend approximately the first 2 months in “inpatient immersion” rotations. These are 1-2 week rotations in surgery, anesthesiology, internal medicine, pediatrics, labor and delivery and psychiatry.  During the remaining 10 months of COSMIC, CSB students complete all of the core clinical specialties at the same time throughout the year.  Students spend 2-4 half-days per month on average in each specialty, mostly in the outpatient setting. Additional required and selective inpatient experiences are scheduled throughout the year.

A: The main benefits of COSMIC, our LIC model, is that our students experience the benefits of patient and preceptor continuity.  Students have the opportunity to follow patients longitudinally across health care systems to experience a patient-centered perspective on health care. For example, students may follow a pregnant patient, help in the delivery of her baby, and then follow up in clinic with both the mother and newborn for postpartum care and well-child check-ups.

Typically, CSB students also get to work with the same attending in each specialty throughout the entire year.  As a result, the CSB students are the primary learner for each attending, since there are very few residents-in-training in Colorado Springs.  The attending preceptor, who can also serve as a mentor, can participate in the student’s knowledge and skill development over the course of the year and can provide progressive levels of health care team and patient care responsibility to the student.  The other main benefit for CSB students is having 2-3 half-days per week of Clinical Enrichment time.  During this self-directed learning time, students can participate in longitudinal patient care or schedule additional clinical opportunities for career exploration.

The main challenge of COSMIC is a clinical schedule that is quite variable at the beginning of the year.  Students have a different inpatient experience every week during the course of the first 2 months and then experience a different specialty every half-day throughout the remaining 10 months.  Although this is challenging at the beginning, most students in LIC models become comfortable with their schedules in about 3-4 months. Following the first 2-3 months of the year, the schedules for CSB students are fairly stable among required experiences, but retain the flexibility for students to add clinical enrichment experiences.

A: Most CSB students spend their inpatient clinical time at Memorial Central and North Hospitals, which are operated by UCHealth (the same system that runs University Hospital on the Anschutz Medical Campus).  Some students spend time at Penrose Hospital and St. Francis Medical Center, which are operated by Centura Health.  Some students also receive clinical experiences at Evans Army Community Hospital (EACH).  EACH is located on the Fort Carson Army Base and serves a local population of about 75,000 active duty and retired military. In 2019, Children’s Hospital of Colorado opened a brand new Children’s Hospital in Colorado Springs which serves as the primary location for inpatient pediatric education for CSB students.

Outpatient experiences during COSMIC occur at several group and private practice locations throughout the Colorado Springs area.  Key outpatient partners include Aspen Pointe, Centura, Children’s Hospital of Colorado, EACH, Kaiser Permanente, Mountain View Medical Group, Optum, Peak Vista Community Health Centers, UCHealth, the United States Air Force Academy, the VA, and many other private practice physician groups.  

The CSB is grateful to all of its clinical partners and physicians for volunteering their time to educate our future physician leaders in a community-based fashion.

A: National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) subject (shelf) exams are taken by all CUSOM students in the following subjects: Internal Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Surgery.  There is an additional pass/fail exams in Emergency Medicine.  In COSMIC, CSB students take all exams starting about 5 months into Phase III and complete their last exam at the end of month 12 with each exam spaced at least 4 weeks apart.

Although most exams are taken prior to completion of all clinical experiences in each particular specialty, performance on each exam mostly reflects test preparation through the recommended reading material rather than actual clinical experience (which is true both for students in LIC and traditional “block” models).  Each year, CSB students have scored comparably on all NBME subject exams with students on the Anschutz Medical Campus.

The added benefit of taking exams early in the year in the COSMIC model is that students can continue to apply the knowledge learned from exam preparation in their clinical settings throughout the remainder of the year.

A: CSB students have the same experience during the pre-clerkship phase (Plains year 1) as the remaining CUSOM students on the Anschutz Medical Campus.  CSB students do not move to Colorado Springs until the beginning of the core clinical year (Foothills year 2 for the Class of 2025 in the new Trek curriculum). 

A: CSB students have access to the same academic, career, and financial support, as all CUSOM students do, through the Office of Student Life (OSL).  OSL representatives are available by phone, video conference, and in-person at the CSB during regularly scheduled visits or by appointment. CSB students also have access to local advisors in addition to designated specialty and career advisors on the main campus. 

The administrative and teaching space for the CSB is located on the 4^th floor of the Lance Center for Academic Health Sciences, located on the University of Colorado Colorado Springs Campus (UCCS).  This location includes dedicated space for the CSB leadership team, individual study space with lockable storage for each student, desktop computers, wifi access, a small medical library, small group rooms, a kitchen, a classroom with video conferencing capabilities, an outdoor deck, and indoor common spaces with comfortable chairs/couches with views of Pikes Peak and the UCCS campus.

The CSB covers the cost of UCCS student fees for on-campus student services such as the UCCS library and the Gallogly Recreation and Wellness Center which includes a gym, pool, other recreational facilities, and the student health center.  CSB students can access medical and mental health services here.  Some services may require a copay or fees depending on insurance coverage.

Like all CUSOM students, CSB students can also choose to pay for parking in designated areas on the UCCS campus.  However, most CSB students do not pay for parking when in Colorado Springs as ample free parking near the Lane Center is available at this time.  Parking is also free in designated areas at all CSB clinical sites.

A: According to several national publications, Colorado Springs is one of the most desirable cities to live in in the country (www.visitcos.com​).  In fact, in 2018 it was rated No. 1​ most desirable place to live! It is also more affordable and has less traffic than living in the Denver area.  Although Colorado Springs has a small-town feel at times, it is currently the 39^th largest city in the country (larger than Miami, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and New Orleans, for example) with nearly 500,000 people and it is rapidly growing.

For the Class of 2025, CSB students will spend their first year (Plains) living in the Denver/Aurora area.  After completion of year 1 (Plains) and prior to the start of year 2 (Foothills), CSB students will move to the Colorado Springs area for the entirety of year 2, which will last about one year. Details on year 3 and 4 (Alpine Ascent) for CSB in the Trek curriculum for CSB will be forthcoming. Currently, some CSB students live in Colorado Springs after their core clerkship year while others move back to Denver.

Bases on the location of where students choose to live in Colorado Springs, students can submit preferences for clinical practices near where they live to minimize the amount of driving during the LIC.

A: In addition to the strong performance of CSB students on the NBME subject exams, CSB students hold many leadership roles throughout CUSOM and their respective classes on the Anschutz Medical Campus. CSB students have also been successful at receiving awards and recognition within their respective classes.  However, the greatest measure of success for our students has been in the residency match. We are proud of the very successful residency match results for the first 3 graduating classes (2018, 2019, and 2020) from the CSB. To view their match results and a list of specialties in which they have matched, see:

Residency Specialty Matches

CSB Match Lists

A: The goal of the CSB is to help all CSB students become competitive applicants for residency programs in any specialty.  CSB students obtain strong letters of recommendation from clinical faculty that they have worked with for the entire year.  All CSB students achieve the same core clinical goals, objectives, and competencies and see the same required clinical conditions compared will all other students at CUSOM.  CSB students have access to the same specialty advisors, Advisory College Program faculty, financial aid support, and support from the Office of Student Life (OSL) as all other CUSOM students.  Specialty advisors and OSL faculty and staff from the Anschutz Medical Campus also make regularly scheduled visits to meet face-to-face with CSB students.

A: All CSB students have engaged with a community organization as part of their Partner Education Action (PEAK) project (see LINK[MOU1]  for examples of PEAK projects).  CSB students have the opportunity to participate in a 2-day experiential poverty immersion known as the Poverty Immersion in Colorado Springs (PICOS).  Each November, CSB students can volunteer to help raise donations to support youth homeless services during The Place’s Night Out to End Youth Homelessness.  In 2017, we established a student-run free clinic (see next FAQ for more details). Students can also opt to dedicate their 4-year Mentor Scholarly Activity (MSA) to community-based research or advocacy. 

A: The CSB partners with Mission Medical Clinic (MMC) to provide free care to Colorado Springs' most vulnerable adults. Mission Medical Clinic is a veteran of Colorado Springs' "safety net" for uninsured and under-insured residents. In 2017, CSB students pioneered a collaboration with MMC to imbed a monthly student-run free clinic within Mission Medical. CSB students provide mentored primary care to adults in partnership with CSB faculty on one Saturday morning each month; students can join the team as early as the spring of their first year of medical school. CSB students are also leading longitudinal quality improvement projects and community engagement projects at Mission Medical Clinic.

 

A: Currently, there are only a few residency opportunities in Colorado Springs: Pathology at Penrose/St. Francis and Family Medicine at Peak Vista Community Health Centers. The Surgery residency program at CUSOM send residents for 1-month rotations at Memorial Hospital. Discussions are currently underway about starting additional residency training programs in the future in Colorado Springs, but no timetable is currently available.

Since Colorado Springs is a rapidly growing community and has not produced any new physicians from residency training in many years, the local community has a physician shortage in almost all specialties.  There are many job opportunities throughout each specialty in Colorado Springs and surrounding communities.  The community is excited to collaboratively train 21st Century physician leaders who hopefully return to Colorado Springs and surrounding areas to practice.

A: Please contact Jennifer Adams, MD, FACP, Interim Associate Dean for Colorado Springs Branch, if you have any questions regarding the CSB.  You may reach Dr. Adams by email at Jennifer.e.adams@cuanschutz.edu.  If you would like to speak with a CSB student, Dr. Adams can provide you with a list of students to contact.