University of Massachusetts Medical School
Community Health Clerkship/Health Policy and Politics in Massachusetts- 2006
The Community Medicine and Public Health Clerkship is a course sponsored by the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health for first year medical students and focuses on population or community issues. Within the program, students may choose one of approximately twenty small groups, each of which has a specific focus. After selecting a topic within the small group, an intensive two-week period begins where the topic is examined and the learning experience culminates in a poster presentation for student review and faculty evaluation at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
The Health Policy and Politics in Massachusetts group will focus on the challenges currently facing the health care system in Massachusetts with an emphasis on increasing both the policy understanding and political competence of student participants.
The format will be highly interactive with participants having an opportunity to interview key policy makers in the Commonwealth executive and legislative branches, consumers and providers of relevant health care services. We will focus on health care reform that is changing the face of health coverage in Massachusetts with special consideration to the impact on patients and the practice of medicine. Readings will include core content in health care economics, health policy and health reform strategies. Significant fieldwork in the Boston area will be required; it is anticipated that this group will be based in Boston 60% of the time and in Worcester 40% of the time. The small group's faculty leaders are Michael Tutty, MHA and Jay Himmelstein, MD, MPH.