Learners will:

• Have a longitudinal experience with a specific community based health organization,
• mentor and the patients and community they serve
• Design, implement, evaluate and present at least one scholarly project in response to an
• identified community need; 
• Be able to recognize and discuss the impact of health disparities, access, culture, language
• and poverty on health status.

Year I

• Students choose a mentor and develop a proposal for a summer project in the fall/early spring. Concentration directors facilitate a series of meetings between the student and his/her community site mentor to develop a summer project proposal by the February deadline for concentration proposals. Possible projects include quality improvement, needs assessment and program development in response to a community/clinical need identified by the student and/or mentor. See list of past projects.

Summer between Years I & II:

The summer project will serve as foundation for scholarly product. The student will receive support and mentoring from the concentration directors to develop the skills needed to complete this summer project. 

Year II

• During the second year concentrators continue to implement their projects building on their summer experience.
• Concentrators attend monthly concentration seminars covering such topics as: impact of social stressors including poverty, racism, environment and sexism on health outcomes; the health care ‘safety net’: community medical and mental health centers, public housing, programs for the homeless, free clinics, correctional system and Department of Children & Friends.  Joint seminars will be held with the scholarly concentration on Advocacy and Activism and Women’s Reproductive Health.
• They lead one of the seminar discussion on a topic of their choice and complete reflective writing assignments to be shared during the monthly meetings. 
• They also present a poster of  their project in November

Year III and IV:

• Third and fourth-year students meet/correspond every 6 months with concentration directors to ensure that they are making progress towards meeting their scholarly goals. 
• Concentrators have the opportunity to continue/complete their scholarly project during a independent study elective in their 3rd or 4th year. 
• All members of the concentration are invited to participate in the seminar discussion and other concentration-related meetings/events.
• The majority of the work on the scholarly product is completed by the end of the 2nd year. Analysis and write up are often completed during a 3rd or 4th year elective.
• Concentrators are also expected to submit an abstract to a state, regional or national conference and/or journal manuscript for publication in the fall of their 4th year.

Preclinical

BIOL 6503: Poverty, Health, and Law
BIOL 6504: Healthcare in America
BIOL 6508: Gender and Sexuality in Healthcare: Caring for All Patients
BIOL 6525: Sex Ed by Brown Med
BIOL 6529: Addiction Medicine
BIOL 6530: Homelessness, Health Justice, and Street Outreach
BIOL 6533: Sex- and Gender-based Medicine: An Overview
BIOL 6650: MOMS (Medical Students Outreach to MotherS-to-be)
BIOL 6653: Refugee Health and Advocacy
BIOL 6655: Intersectional Health Justice in Action
BIOL 6663: HIV/HepC Qualified Professional Test Counselor Certification Course
BIOL 6678: Incarceration and Health
BIOL 6679: The San Miguel Project
BIOL 6693: Sexual Assault & Domestic Violence Advocacy Training
BIOL 6687: A Trauma-Informed Approach to Patient-Centered Care
BIOL 6686: BE REAL About Health: Brown Enriching RITS Residents' Experiences in Adolescent Life
BIOL 6540: Medicine, Knowledge, and Social Justice: Theory and Practice
BIOL 6516: Race, Health, and Structural Inequality: Interdisciplinary Perspectives

View Elective Descriptions

Clinical

Family Medicine Clerkship - integrate scholarly concentration work into project requirements
Independent Study - Scholars can use this rotation to complete their project.
Advanced Clinical Mentorship (ACM) - it may be possible to design an ACM that also allows work towards the scholarly product.

1. First year: students are evaluated on their summer project presentations. 
2. Second year: students are required to attend and actively participate in monthly seminars. They are evaluated on their participation, reflective writing and the seminar they lead.
3. Fourth year: students submit a c.v. of concentration related activities and give a powerpoint presentation of their final product at the concentration graduation in May.

4-6 per class

Class of 2022

1. Kodi Alvord, E Ola Mau Ka Lāhui Hawaiʻi: Measuring Historical Trauma in a Rural Hawaiian Health Clinic.  (Mary Baker)
2. Julianna Brown, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Continuing Medical Education Program on Providing Healthcare to People Involved in the Sex Industry.  (Elena Shih)
3. John Debella, Evaluating demographics, behaviors, and referral sources of individuals initiating preexposure.  (Dr. Philip Chan)
4. Onagh Mackenzie, A Qualitative Analysis of The Navajo Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program’s Long-term Impacts.  (Dr. Fadya El Rayess; Dr. Sonya Shin)
5. Lindsey Vandergrift, Identifying Factors Affecting Prisoners’ Distrust of the Healthcare System.  (Paul Christopher, MD)
6. Douglas Villalta, Evaluating a Telephone-Delivered Problem-Solving Intervention to Improve Engagement among Youth in an Outpatient Weight Management Clinic. (Elissa Jelalian, PhD)
7. Kevin Wang, Determining the Value of Patient Navigation in a Vulnerable LatinX Population.  (Paul George, MD, MHPE)
8. Robert Williams, “ Understanding risk behaviors in gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men taking pre- exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention”.  (Phil Chan, MD, MPH)

Class of 2021

1. Megan Cook, Skeletal Surveys in Infants Presenting with Skull Fractures.  (Dr. Brett Slingsby)
2. Catherine Gannage, Financial Resource Guide for Low-Income Cancer Patients in RI.  (Betty Bernal & Edward Feller)
3. Alyssa Gonzalez, Si Podemos! Creating a system of community health workers aimed at caring for the underserved population of teenage mothers in Pharr, Texas. (Maria del C Colon-Gonzalez, MD, FAAFP; Joseph Diaz, MD, MPH, FACP)
4. Laura Harrison, Evaluation of pre-exposure prophylaxis implementation for HIV prevention in primary care settings.  (Dr. Philip Chan)
5. Danielle Hollenbeck-Pringle, Yoga en Clinica and the role of yoga in metabolic syndrome.  (Mariah Stump, MD, MPH)

Class of 2020

1.       Jenna Berger, E*Navigator: using mHealth to improve colorectal cancer screening health literacy in underserved communities. (Mentor Joseph Diaz, MD, MPH, site East Bay CHC)
2.       Caroline Burks, Teams Work: Improving Team-Based Care in Urban Safety Net Systems.(Hali Hammer, MD, site San Francisco Health Network)
3.      Danielle Castagneri, Assessing how activities conducted in home-based child care settings are associated with physical activity levels in ethnically diverse, 2-5 year old children. (Kim Gans, PhD, site Hasbro)
4.       Julia Hadley, Outcomes of a non-occupational post-exposure prophylaxis program after sexual assault; five years of experience at an urban medical center. (Erica Hardey, MD, MMSE and Roxanne Vrees, MD, site: Women & Infants ER)
5.       Rachel Hill, Incredible Years: Adaptation, Implementation, and Evaluation with Adolescent Mothers. (Patricia Flanigan, MD; site Hasbro and Nowell Leadership Academy)
6.       Randall Li, Informing the Adaptation of a CHW Model to Facilitate Lung Cancer Screening for Chinese Taxi Drivers. (Jennifer Leng, MD and Joseph Diaz, MD ; site NYC)

Class of 2019

1.       Katherine Ciocolello. Medical and Community Perspectives Regarding Disparities in Access to High Quality End of Life Care: Barriers and Potential Solutions. (Mentor Gowri Anandarajah, MD, site Hope Home & Hospice)
2.       Julianne Edwards. Computerized Intervention to Improve Family Knowledge of Environmental Triggers for Children with Asthma. (Mentor Dr. Garrow, site Hasbro ED)
3.       Denise Marte. Parenting Adolescent Empowerment Model: Employing an empowerment based group education approach to improve and assess changes in the emotional preparedness of pregnant adolescents in underserved communities in RI. (Mentor: Jordan White, MD, MPH, site Nowell Academy)
4.       Shayla Medina. Assessing the health status and health care utilization of unaccompanied immigrant minors: a stakeholder analysis. (Mentor: Carol Lewis, MD, site Refugee Clinic Hasbro)
5.       Amber Cardoos. Incarceration as a time of weight gain: developing a weight loss intervention for female inmates at the RI Adult Correctional Institution. (Mentor: Jennifer Clarke, MD, MPH, site ACI)

Class of 2018

1.       Nora Avalos. HIV Testing in Hidalgo County, Texas. (Mentor: Maria Colon-Gonzalez, MD)
2.       Lorena Garcia. Measuring Prisoners' Voluntary Consent to Clinical Research for Opioid Dependence. (Mentor: Paul Christopher, MD; site Butler Hospital and ACI)
3.       Gary Khammahavong.  Continuation of Care: Why Do Some Refugee Populations Stop Seeing Primary Care Physicians? (Mentor: Elizabeth Toll, MD; site: Med/Peds Clinic, Lifespan)
4.       Tim Pian.  Design and evaluation of a series of pop-up farmers’ market days at a public housing development. (Mentor: Anna Filip, MD; site: Thundermist Health Centers)
5.       Ellen Richardson.  Barriers to Care: Access to Physical Therapy for Children with Cerebral Palsy. (Mentor: Craig Eberson, MD; site: Neurodevelopment Center, Hasbro)
6.      Joshua Rodriguez-Srednicki – Understanding Homeless Vet Pop, A Comparison of Health Outcomes Before and After Recent Recession  (Mentor: Thomas O’Toole – VA)

• Jennifer Clarke, MD, PhD (IM-MHRI, Prison Health)
• Anne DeGroot, MD, (IM-ID, Director of Clinica Esperanza)
• Sarah Fessler, MD, (FM, Director of East Bay Community Health Center)
• Beata Nelkin, MD (Peds, Thundermist Health Center, Woonsocket)
• Thomas O’Toole, MD, MPH (IM, Director of National Homeless Veterans PACT Program)
• Joe Rabatin, MD (IM, MHRI, RI Free Clinic)
• Sara Delaporta, MD (FM, Thundermist Health Center, West Warwick)

Students can apply for summer assistantship funding.