Medical Education in the Public Interest

Documenting the Soros Service Program for Community Health (SSPCH), Medical Education in the Public Interest provides a history of how medical professionalism has been taught and explains why it should be taught in a community context. It also includes a tool kit for developing similar community-based learning experiences, and the results of a survey of professionalism and advocacy activities among SSPCH alumni.

The publication is designed to provide a framework for grounding the concepts of professionalism in structured curricula and with experiential learning in a community setting. Written primarily for medical educators, it will also interest community organization members, funders, and anyone interested in advancing health care.

Created in 1999 by OSI's program on Medicine as a Profession, SSPCH sought to teach medical students about professionalism in a community context. From 2000 to 2003, SSPCH partnered with community-based organizations in Baltimore and New York City to offer three types of educational experiences to medical students: a pre-clinical fellowship, a summer internship, and a clinical clerkship.