Foundation Grant to Fund Core Curriculum

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Students in the five departments and multiple degree programs in the University at Buffalo's School of Public Health and Health Professions will benefit from a common core curriculum to be developed under a two-year, $257,000 grant from the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation.

The new curriculum, being developed around the common theme of prevention, population health and wellness, is expected to serve as a model for other colleges and universities.

"This approach will ensure a common understanding and focus among students in our undergraduate, graduate and professional programs," said Maurizio Trevisan, M.D., dean of the school. "A core curriculum will provide opportunities for these students to train together, and to be aware of the societal forces that shape the health and well-being of individuals and communities."

"The grant is particularly gratifying," he added, "because it provides recognition and support for one of the key elements of the mission of our newly established school. It's confirmation that we are leading the way in our efforts to transform the education of health professionals."

Dale Fish, Ph.D., associate professor of rehabilitation science and associate dean for academic and student affairs at the school, is principal investigator on the grant.

"The core curriculum will fulfill our vision for the school -- to train health professionals in a public health environment," said Fish.

"By providing common academic experiences that integrate our various degree-granting programs, we will create a shared base of knowledge among our students and enable the UB School of Public Health and Health Professions to be more than the mere sum of its academic programs."

The core curriculum will be built around three focus areas: "professionalism and communication," "evidence-based practice" and "population health, wellness, and disability."

Of the three focus areas, "population health, wellness, and disability" is perhaps the most obvious in its capacity to breathe life into the academic mission of the school, Fish stated.

"This area will assure that students understand and value health and health-care concepts as applied to the public, as well as to individuals. Essential aspects of exercise, diet, health behaviors and health-care delivery and policies will be considered in a broad context in which wellness is advanced for healthy persons as well as those with chronic disabilities or acute injuries."

"Professionalism and communication" will cover professional and interpersonal skills, values and ethics in health care, cultural competence, and multidisciplinary team building and group processes, Fish said. Evidence-based practice will focus on basic statistics, accessing and appraising the professional literature and applying that literature in making clinical decisions.

The grant includes funds to hire a senior faculty member with curriculum development experience and a media specialist to develop teaching resources.

The full core curriculum is scheduled to be in place by 2010, although some elements will be introduced sooner, said Fish. "The core will be required of all SPHHP students, so extreme care must be taken to assure its quality before it is instituted."

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, the largest and most comprehensive campus in the State University of New York. The School of Public Health and Health Professions is one of five schools that constitute UB's Academic Health Center.