Population Health Education Evaluation of a One-Year Masters of Public Health Program for Medical Students Between Their Third and Fourth Years

For physicians to better treat and advise their patients on the roles of behavioral and social factors in health and disease, greater levels of competency in social and behavioral sciences are needed. Physicians should also understand the structure, financing, and administration of the health care delivery system, so that they will be able to practice medicine effectively and participate in planning and managing the delivery of care. And, improving overall public health requires that physicians understand the basic tenets of population-based medicine. One way to achieve these goals is to develop education and training programs for integrating formal public health training with formal medical training. There are many models by which a medical student or practitioner can obtain a master of public health (MPH) degree. In this article, the authors describe an accelerated one-year MPH program for competitively selected New York City medical students who have completed their third year of training and enroll at the Mailman Schoo