Population Health and Scholarship
Key areas addressed in PHS Blocks 1/2:
Population and community health
Scholarly project
EBM
Health Equity
Professional/leadership development
ACGME common program requirements:
The definition of family medicine is a primary care specialty which demonstrates high quality care within the context of a personal doctor-patient relationship and with an appreciation for the individual, family, and community connections. Continuity of comprehensive care for the diverse patient population family physicians serve is foundational to the specialty. Access, accountability, effectiveness, and efficiency are essential elements of the discipline. The coordination of patient care and leadership of advanced primary care practices and evolving health care systems are additional vital roles for family physicians.
The mission of institutions participating in graduate medical education is to improve the health of the public. Each community has health needs that vary based upon location and demographics. Programs must understand the social determinants of health of the populations they serve and incorporate them in the design and implementation of the program curriculum, with the ultimate goal of addressing these needs and health disparities. There must be a structured curriculum in which residents address population health, including the evaluation of health problems of the community.
We aim for our residents to learn best practices for partnering with communities and patients to improve population health by becoming familiar with the principles of Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) in the context of project collaborations with active community partner organizations. Residents will gain experience working alongside communities to improve population health. They will be exposed to perspectives on health equity and health policy through NM specific cultural sharing by local community leaders. They will also have opportunity to engage with evidence based quality improvement tools for practice change, including PDSA cycles.
Overarching goals for PHS
For residents to be able to:
1) Be able to integrate scholarly work with their clinical work experiences.
2) Gain exposure to local initiatives and health system improvement advocacy work.
3) Pursue passion projects by first reviewing best practices in CBPR and by building connections/networking with local community leaders.
4) Gain exposure to tools for skill building in advocacy and professional leadership.
5) Explore how to operationalize health equity.
The Curriculum
We require both a community engagement project/participation, and scholarly activity. We have redesigned the curriculum to focus on reviewing the guiding principles of community-based participatory research (CPBR) during PHS Block 1. This is an example of one model that can be utilized in decolonizing population based research. Residents will be able to choose from projects of current need led by our Community Partners who are working with local population groups in the area. We are hopeful that this will allow residents to use their community engagement as the basis for one of their required scholarly activities during the PHS block time if possible, so that residents will be able to complete the requirement and then engage in other interest area projects with the remaining time in residency (without having to be worried about finishing a graduation requirement!). Though matching projects with individual interests doesn't always work out perfectly - we want to encourage participation in community engagement and the group work process.
PHS Block 2 will allow for residents still working on completion of their community-partner project(s)/deliverable(s) to have ample project time to complete those tasks and wrap up their projects. Block 2 also allows residents interested in other projects to pursue those interests with the available project time.
Please use the emailed link from Dr. McClain for the PHS Block shared drive, the current version of the block schedule, and your Deliverables folder.
PHS Block Faculty:
Dr. Molly McClain
Dr. Kathy Chang
Project Mentors:
If you are planning a scholarly project outside of the community partner project, please identify your project mentor in the Project Tracking Form.
Otherwise the PHS Block Faculty will serve as your faculty mentors in collaboration with the Community Partner project leads.
2025 Updated Projects Files:
Evidence-based Medicine: review of key concepts PPT
The ACGME guidelines for scholarly activity in Family Medicine can be found here.
February |
Deliverables per week |
WEEK 1 |
Deliverables (by end of week): (a) Group and project selection. (b) Reading list for a relevant literature review. (c) Connect with project lead. |
WEEK 2 |
Deliverables (by end of week): (a) Complete the BASiC-QI assessment. (b) Complete IHI module on PDSA and prep personal clinic PDSA mini-project. (c) Literature review started and population review drafted.
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WEEK 3
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Deliverables: (a) Map of project plan moving forward, including ideas for August PHS time. (b) Complete buprenorphine training. (c) Complete first portion of ABFM PI module. (d) Trial brief PDSA on own clinic practice.
|
WEEK 4 |
Deliverables 4: (a) Trial brief PDSA on own clinic practice. (b) Draft presentation for Week 5. |
WEEK 5 |
Deliverables: (a) Discuss personal PDSA trial. (b) Project presentation. |
Key Competencies (February) |
Desired Outcomes for the Month |
1. Leadership |
1. Meet and begin relationship with Community Partner(s)/ Researcher(s)
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2. Ability to work in diverse communities |
2. Time and space to do research |
3. Understanding policy with NM Lens |
3. Identify project that you want to do: Achieve the deliverables
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4. Being a community advocate |
4. Understand basic structure of PDSA cycles
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5. Evidence Based Medicine |
5. Balance between skills and research time
|
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|
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6. (Optional): Start the IRB/CITI for projects if relevant/interested
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August |
Deliverables per week |
WEEK 1 |
Deliverables: (a) Clarify completion steps for group project OR Clarify parameters for individual scholarly project. Update Gantt chart (or your own preferred project management tool) with current project plan. (b) Confirm follow-up/schedule check-ins with community partners. (c) Choose 1 QIKAT-R case and complete worksheet. Email QIKAT-R to kzchang@salud.unm.edu before 8/5 session. |
WEEK 2 |
Deliverables: (a) Complete ALSO course pre-work. (b) Literature review and population review summarized for personal scholarly project if not using group project for requirement (and if not already completed in February). (c) Email lit review by Thursday 8/10. |
WEEK 3 |
Deliverables: (a) Check on project completion timeline using Gantt chart. (b) Reflection on personal leadership style and areas for growth. (c) DISC training pre-work. |
WEEK 4 |
Deliverables 4: (a) Complete QIKAT-R and PDSA worksheets with group (during scheduled time). (b) Complete ABFM PI Activity, if not already completed. (c) Draft infographic (or Poster Draft) for Week 5 feedback on chosen scholarly activity. |
WEEK 5 |
Deliverables: (a) Present infographic (or Poster Draft) on group community project OR personal scholarly activity for feedback prior to final send/print. |
Key Competency Areas |
Desired Outcomes for the Month (AUGUST) |
1. Leadership/ professional development |
1a. Continue to build relationship with Community Partner(s)/ Researcher(s); 1b. Identify project that you want to do: Achieve the deliverables; 1c. Reflection on personal leadership pathway and areas for growth |
2. Ability to work in diverse communities |
2a. Positive collaboration feedback from community partners; 2b. Demonstrate active engagement and professional collaboration with cohort colleagues |
3. Understanding policy with NM Lens |
3. Exposure to community partners and local population health leaders |
4. Being a community advocate for health equity |
4a. Exposure to additional Health Equity educational and leadership resources; 4b. Understand Quality Improvement project formulation, utilize standard QI/PS tools, and initiate PDSA cycle integration into clinical practice for testing change |
5. Evidence Based Medicine |
5. Balance between skills and research time |
6. Scholarly activity |
6a. Time and space to do research; 6b. Increase relevant population and community health understanding and advocacy through scholarly activities; 6c. Utilize evidence-based medicine and quality improvement strategies; 6d. (Optional): Complete the IRB/CITI for projects if relevant/interested |
General Scholarly Project Timeline:
R1:
- February: Community engagement project collaboration with CBPR principles
- February: Split into community partner groups and develop Scholarly Project proposal, complete literature review and partner tasks based on project needs
- March-July: If also planning independent Scholarly Project, begin draft IRB proposal and schedule partner meetings/work for August
R2:
- August: Check in with project mentor/community partner leads/workgroup and complete projects as outlined
- (For any independent projects: Submit IRB for any independent Scholarly Projects if not already done, begin data collection/intervention when approved, check in with project mentor)
- December/January: Check in with project mentor, create poster
- February: Present completed or "work in progress" at the NMAFP Winter Refresher Poster session.
R3:
- July/August: If not already done with project, check in with project mentor, clarify achievable goals for project.
- December/January: If not already done with project, check in with project mentor, wrap up project, consider transitioning project to interns/other residents if ongoing.
- June: Present final project as poster or presentation at UNM DFCM Scholar's Day.
Older project examples:
Examples of UNM Family Medicine Resident Scholarly Projects
Family Medicine faculty research projects examples are listed here.
Consider presenting scholarly project at the STFM Spring conference or other local/regional/national/international conferences.
Conference suggestions and tips on preparing a poster: Conference and Presentation Opportunities
Community Engagement is important for population health, and something we value highly in our department. It is a process of involving community members in designing, implementing, and evaluating solutions to problematic conditions they are affected by. This partnership makes use of a community's own resources and strengths. Such engagement or participation should stem from the needs and desires of the community.
For our purposes, community engagement can also be more loosely defined as our efforts to improve the health of our patients that occur outside the boundaries of our usual clinical work. The community itself can even be considered broadly: from the communities of our continuity clinics to communities of our patients that we work with elsewhere (i.e. our hospital services).
Scholarly Activity entails contribution to knowledge available to the discipline of family medicine and/or its subspecialty fellowship areas.
The ACGME guidelines for scholarly activity in Family Medicine can be found here.
Tips for designing a scholarly project: Developing scholarly projects in education a primer for medical teachers.pdf
Old calendars:
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