What are some medical schools with a social justice/healthcare for underserved focus?

[ems_97]

Hi all,

I'm putting together my list of schools and I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for medical schools which are good for people who want to go into care for underserved people. I'm interested in working with unhoused people (that's what I do now), and generally want to pursue a combination of advocacy along with medical practice, I'm potentially looking into MD/MPH programs, and I want to make sure I'm not missing schools that would provide a good environment for that. Some of my top schools for now are UCSF (specifically the JMP w/ Berkeley), Boston U, Brown, UNC, UC Davis, etc. Please let me know if I'm missing any great places!!

Thanks,
EMS

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[Flareicus]

Others may have better input on the schools, but a little aside as I've seen a ton of applicants that make this mistake.

Apply to Davis only if you're a CA resident. If you aren't, your chances of getting in are essentially zero. You may be a good fit for the undeserved part of their mission, but they value training regional physicians much more highly.

 

[ems_97]

Others may have better input on the schools, but a little aside as I've seen a ton of applicants that make this mistake.

Apply to Davis only if you're a CA resident. If you aren't, your chances of getting in are essentially zero. You may be a good fit for the undeserved part of their mission, but they value training regional physicians much more highly.

Good to know, thanks! Luckily I am a CA resident, but definitely good to keep in mind.

 

[TabbyTuxy]

BU and certainly UChicago.

 

[LizzyM]

I'd suggest the Jesuit schools: Georgetown, Saint Louis University, Creighton, Loyola. It is built into their mission.

The students at Creighton have a clinic that might be of interest to you: Magis Clinic | Magis Clinic | Creighton University

 

[jakemainstreet]

UCSD has students and faculty actively working on border and refugee health, has a well-established free clinic system with high student participation, and recently students have started a homeless health initiative to bring street medicine to San Diego. I'm just an admitted student so my knowledge is limited, but DM me if you want more info.

 

[caterwaiter]

I'll add Rush and TCU & UNTHSC to the list!

 

[jakemainstreet]

Forgot to mention — in case you don't know, most of the UC med schools have a PRIME (Program in Medical Education) like UCSF's JMP with Berkeley. Each program has a focus area but they are all geared toward training physicians to serve the underserved. See here: UC Programs in Medical Education (UC PRIME) | UCOP. The focus of UCSD's PRIME is health equity, and UCSD recently opened a public health school, meaning students can now get an MPH in-house.

 

[deleted1076141]

I'd suggest the Jesuit schools: Georgetown, Saint Louis University, Creighton, Loyola. It is built into their mission.

The students at Creighton have a clinic that might be of interest to you: Magis Clinic | Magis Clinic | Creighton University

I was going to mention the Magis clinic too! I ended up going to the University of Minnesota (also a school with a big service focus) over Creighton, but Creighton really impressed me with how deep it’s jesuit ideals influenced the school

 

[TelemarketingEnigma]

Given your interest in MD/MPH programs you should definitely add Miami to your list

 

[spottedcory]

Doesn't UNC have crazy out of state tuition?

 

[Belphegor]

Texas Tech El Paso and UTRGV are both along the US-MX border. Lots of rural patients, low SES, and undocumented patients. You'll also learn some Spanish!

 

[Angus Avagadro]

I believe this has been discussed before. Make sure to research similiar threads on SDN.

 

[LunaOri]

PURCH track at UMass

 

[walterwhite3556]

tufts

 

[proudofmykids]

I believe Kaiser and Yale too.

 

[YCAGA]

I have yet to see a US medical school that doesn't have this goal as part of their mission or at least a clinic for the underserved in the city that works with medical students. If you really want to do an MD/MPH, then obviously that narrows things down, but I would worry about getting into A medical school before you hyper-focus on one area of medicine.

 

[deleted1017120]

The University of Minnesota - Duluth's mission statement specifically focuses on primary care (particularly FM) for both rural and, in particular, Native American populations.

They also very heavily and explicitly recruit for this. If you don't show significant interest in going into primary care, you probably won't get an acceptance. They also heavily prefer MN residents or people with ties to MN. You do your 3rd and 4th years in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul), so it might still be possible to do an MD/PhD there as well (I've never looked into if people have done it).

Not entirely sure it would be your best fit, but it is one of the few schools that I have seen that are exclusively and strongly committed to providing healthcare to underserved populations. Definitely deserves a mention at least.

 

[Talldoctor96]

Rush, loyola, drexel. UVM

 

[Cspine]

UW-Madison has a track called TRIUMPH that you can apply to in your 2nd year to go to Milwaukee for clerkships, where the focus is on underserved urban communities. They also have like 7 free clinics around Madison that you can start volunteering a couple months into school.

MD Program - Training in Urban Medicine and Public Health - School of Medicine and Public Health

Learn about the Training in Urban Medicine and Public Health program which trains students to provide care for underserved urban populations.

www.med.wisc.edu

 

[pizzadoc2519]

Temple LKSOM is uniquely poised to address social determinants of health and racism in medicine in ways that support existing work in the community (and aren't overwhelmingly motivated by white savior complexes). I looked at a lot of places that bragged about how much they "serve the underserved", but was always disappointed to learn that most can talk the talk, but don't walk the walk. Temple has impressed me with its ability to do both. I think talking to current students will be your best bet - it can give you a sense of how your potential future classmates engage in service and social justice. You'll be able to tell right away if it's genuine.

 

[Wrinklebottom]

Boston & Temple.

 

[JBM16BYU]

I'll put in a plug for DO schools. Many DO schools are located in rural areas and have a focus on helping that population. Primary care is emphasized at many DO schools, but you don't necessarily have to pursue FM, IM, Peds, etc if it's not your cup of tea. Someone above mentioned TCU/UNTHSC, so I'll also mention that TCOM (the DO school in the same city, linked with UNTHSC) has the same opportunities. They do offer a DO/MPH as well.

 

[pbk123]

Emory! Their clinics serve Atlanta’s refugee communities, most of your rotations will be at Grady, the Southeast’s major safety net hospital, and they have a top 5 MPH program with direct access to the CDC.

 

[Vizcacha618]

Definitely Emory, Tufts (4 year MD/MPH, as well as Maine Track for rural medicine), Tulane (4 year MD/MPH), Duke Primary Care Leadership Track (community service projects and longitudinal integrated clerkship, can get MPH at UNC during research year), Virginia Commonwealth, Kaiser, Florida International University, University of Rochester (biopsychosocial model). However, no matter what school you go to, there will be plenty of opportunities to serve. Most schools have student-run clinics that provide free services to underinsured/uninsured patients. Many schools also have "distinction tracks" that allow you to focus on an area of interest in medicine and create a capstone project, and they usually have some kind of "community service" track where you get to develop a project with a local organization. Some examples of schools with programs like this are University of Iowa, University of Rochester, and Case Western Reserve University.

 

[middchild6]

Temple LKSOM is uniquely poised to address social determinants of health and racism in medicine in ways that support existing work in the community (and aren't overwhelmingly motivated by white savior complexes). I looked at a lot of places that bragged about how much they "serve the underserved", but was always disappointed to learn that most can talk the talk, but don't walk the walk. Temple has impressed me with its ability to do both. I think talking to current students will be your best bet - it can give you a sense of how your potential future classmates engage in service and social justice. You'll be able to tell right away if it's genuine.

Agree with this comment right here. You said it much more politely than I would have. The gag is...a lot of schools talk about “underserved” and community service opportunities but when you look under the hood it’s all smoke and mirrors. It was an extreme disappointment for me when I arrived at my medical school to find out that this was the case. My jaded, cynical opinion is that most schools add diversity/underserved statements to their webpages and try to promote it at interviews, but it actually turns out to be BS.

Just try to get in anywhere and once you have acceptances, try to go to the place that you can see yourself not being too miserable in for 4 years.

I learned the hard way that medical school is not the place to try to tackle systemic issues like racism, poverty & inequality. Most of your colleagues don’t care, and if you are a URM like me (and there are only a few others in your class), speaking up about these things puts you on the fast track to be ostracized and resented by your classmates. If I could go back to the day before my first day of medical school I would tell myself to keep your head down/keep a low profile, study and pass your classes/boards, and do exactly what you are told to get through your clerkships. Get your degree and bounce. Then you can work on the issues you care about.

 

[mdphd123j]

This is the entire mission of Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU)

Edit: located in Camden, NJ

 

[KiddCo]

You could look into Geisinger in Scranton, PA. They are very focused on helping community/low ses and their mission is based around that.

 

[14_karat]

Temple LKSOM is uniquely poised to address social determinants of health and racism in medicine in ways that support existing work in the community (and aren't overwhelmingly motivated by white savior complexes). I looked at a lot of places that bragged about how much they "serve the underserved", but was always disappointed to learn that most can talk the talk, but don't walk the walk. Temple has impressed me with its ability to do both. I think talking to current students will be your best bet - it can give you a sense of how your potential future classmates engage in service and social justice. You'll be able to tell right away if it's genuine.

Though I’m still only an applicant there, I really agree. My entire application was social justice-oriented and Temple gave me the most “I can back my **** up” vibe as it concerns this realm. I heard a lot of good insights, critique, and honest reflection about community engagement during my Temple interview. This was the only interview day where the students were honest about both the good work that’s being done by the institution AND shortcomings that the institution has had in respect to the relationship with the surrounding community. The students themselves did not back away from certain questions and we were able to have in-depth conversations about some of the opportunities, what they were doing, and how it would help them to tackle these issues in the future. They knew what they were talking about and it was clear that many of the “pathways” weren’t just fluff. I can’t say the same for every other school I interviewed at (some were mentioned here in this thread). Hope I get the A there in the end lol.

 

[DrVan Nostrand]

Wayne St

 

[middchild6]

Though I’m still only an applicant there, I really agree. My entire application was social justice-oriented and Temple gave me the most “I can back my **** up” vibe as it concerns this realm. I heard a lot of good insights, critique, and honest reflection about community engagement during my Temple interview. This was the only interview day where the students were honest about both the good work that’s being done by the institution AND shortcomings that the institution has had in respect to the relationship with the surrounding community. The students themselves did not back away from certain questions and we were able to have in-depth conversations about some of the opportunities, what they were doing, and how it would help them to tackle these issues in the future. They knew what they were talking about and it was clear that many of the “pathways” weren’t just fluff. I can’t say the same for every other school I interviewed at (some were mentioned here in this thread). Hope I get the A there in the end lol.

Temple is a great option. I hope you get in! Because of where it is located there’s no way you can avoid interacting with the residents there, and you WILL have a diverse patient population.

 

[pizzadoc2519]

Though I’m still only an applicant there, I really agree. My entire application was social justice-oriented and Temple gave me the most “I can back my **** up” vibe as it concerns this realm. I heard a lot of good insights, critique, and honest reflection about community engagement during my Temple interview. This was the only interview day where the students were honest about both the good work that’s being done by the institution AND shortcomings that the institution has had in respect to the relationship with the surrounding community. The students themselves did not back away from certain questions and we were able to have in-depth conversations about some of the opportunities, what they were doing, and how it would help them to tackle these issues in the future. They knew what they were talking about and it was clear that many of the “pathways” weren’t just fluff. I can’t say the same for every other school I interviewed at (some were mentioned here in this thread). Hope I get the A there in the end lol.

I hope you get an acceptance from Temple, too! Feel free to DM me if you need anything!

 

[taco_chronicles]

I'll throw a plug for FIU. TBH it's what really drew me to them is their actual commitment to underserved populations and addressing the social determinants of health- it was essentially created to fill the need that other schools lacked. Their curriculum has been winning a ton of awards and notoriety for it!

 

[LindaAccepted]

CUSM, BU, Kaiser, Loyola Stritch, UT Austin Dell come to mind.

 

[theendisnigh]

EVMS's mission statement is community service to the town of Norfolk and addressing health disparities in the area. They walk their talk.

 

[Alexxxxx]

I believe George Washington has a heavy focus on public health, and has a great MD/MPH program.