Fourth Year Elective

Social Medicine

Course Directors:
Jennifer Adams MD, jennifer.adams@dhha.org
Michelle Cleeves MD, michelle.cleeves@dhha.org
Meg Tomcho MD, margaret.tomcho@dhha.org

Description:
Elective experience allowing interested graduates of the DHLIC to participate in a longitudinal post-clerkship experience engaging in mentored scholarly work and an in-depth curriculum in social medicine. Students choose between tracks for their project work:

• Quality Improvement and Patient Safety,
• Community Engagement and Outreach, and
• Medical Education and Curriculum Development.

The Longitudinal Social Medicine Elective encompasses a mentored project, longitudinal patient care, student project presentations, service learning, and didactics.

Student projects to date:
QI/Patient Safety:
Caitlin Felder-Heim (2017-18): Chronic Pain and Opiate Management through Integrated Therapies
Helen Madsen (2017-18): Improvement of Palliative Care Services in the Surgical ICU at Denver Health
Bijan Ghaffari (2018-19): Improvement of Primary Care Preventive Services at MHCD

Community Engagement:
Catherine Ard (2018/19): Development of a Service Learning Program and Social Determinants of Health Curriculum for the DH-LIC

Medical Education:
Audrey Magnowski (2017-18): Design of a Novel DH-LIC Radiology Curriculum
Michael Berger (2017-18): Design of a Advocacy for Health Care Providers Curriculum
Robert Flick (2017-18): A Qualitative Study Exploring the Patient Experience Working with LIC Students at DH
Bijan Ghaffari (2018-29): Design of a Novel Immigrant Health Curriculum for the DH-LIC
​
Examples of Social Medicine topics covered in didactics and workshops:

• Medical-Legal Partnerships
• Trauma-Informed care
• Implicit Bias
• Criminal Justice
• Health Care Financing in a Safety Net System
• Collaborative Leadership
• Healthcare for the Homeless ​​