Innovative Health Professions Education for the 21st Century

NSU Medical School Receives $2.3. Million of Federal Stimulus Money to Train Medical Students and other Health Professionals to Better Serve Communities Lacking Adequate Health Care

FT. LAUDERDALE – DAVIE Fla. — Nova Southeastern University’s medical school, the College of Osteopathic Medicine, recently received a $2.3 million federal grant to develop an academic curriculum to train medical and other students in the health professions to better meet the needs of patients in a changing national health care system.

This important academic initiative will train future health care students to work in interdisciplinary teams that are focused on the patient’s individual needs to avoid duplication of care, incorporate electronic medical records and reduce medical errors. The curriculum will serve as a model for other medical schools to use across the nation, emphasizing the importance of professional interaction and collaborative work among health professionals.

The College of Osteopathic Medicine is using the 5-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to focus on helping students better meet the needs of the medically underserved, which is a major challenge of the new health care law of 2010. This curriculum will incorporate the concepts of an interdisciplinary and interprofessional education, which brings together other health disciplines — such as pharmacy, dental, optometry, etc.  — into a medical education.  Each medical student in the program will be trained in medicine as well as learn the aspects of other health care practices at NSU’s Health Professions Division.

The idea is to develop well-rounded physicians who can provide comprehensive health care to those who need it the most.  These are people who live in underserved areas, in both rural and urban areas, where physicians are far and few, as well as those who do not have health insurance.  This goal is outlined in a new federal health care law known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.

The medical school’s new program, which will provide students with both a medical degree and a master’s degree in public health, will train physicians to be knowledgeable in public health services and advocacy, electronic medical records, competency in dealing with different ethnicities, disease prevention, etc.  Students will also be trained to work in medical home settings, which are the partnerships between the patient, their families, and the physician, to provide comprehensive care.

Additionally, the College of Osteopathic Medicine will be using the grant to attract more students from underserved and minority communities.

“This grant allows the College of Osteopathic Medicine to increase its diversity, while providing an interdisciplinary curriculum that prepares our students to meet the needs of  individuals  who have little access to physicians,” said Cecilia Rokusek, Ed. D., R.D., the college’s executive director of education, planning and research, and the grant’s principal investigator.  “Given that interprofessional medical practice is such an important component in the new health care law, this grant will help enable COM and NSU’s Health Professions Division to develop future medical leaders for a changing health care system.”

In other news, the college also received a $247,500 grant from HHS to expand the use of electronic medical records as well as purchasing more high-tech robotic mannequins, known as human simulators.  These simulators, which mimic a variety of medical conditions, will be used to train medical students, as well as students in physician assistant and nursing programs.

The grant will allow the medical school to increase the number of its human simulators from three to eight.  The new simulators will serve 960 medical students as well as students in other programs.

Media Contact:
Ken Ma, NSU Office of Public Affairs
954-262-5408 (office), 954-830-4177 (cell), ken.ma@nova.edu