35 pre-medical students will specialize in primary care for metropolitan communities

CLEVELAND – A groundbreaking collaboration between Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) and Cleveland State University has admitted its second class of 35 pre-medical students.

The NEOMED-CSU Partnership for Urban Health was established to addresses the unique health-care needs within urban metropolitan areas. The partnership includes an Urban Primary Care Initiative, which seeks to connect pre-med and medical students directly to urban communities in Cleveland, where they may return to serve as primary care physicians after completing their residency training.

The CSU students who entered the partnership this fall are taking pre-med courses in sciences and in urban health at the Academic Campus of NEOMED at CSU. These students qualify for early assurance admission to NEOMED in Rootstown, Ohio, in 2014 and 2015, where they will pursue a newly created urban health curriculum.

All told, there are currently 63 pre-medical students in the partnership.

NEOMED and CSU have created two paths for CSU students to become primary care physicians through this partnership: the Post Baccalaureate/M.D. and the Baccalaureate/M.D. These programs build upon CSU’s pre-med curriculum and NEOMED’s Doctor of Medicine curriculum to include courses in urban health.

Urban health focuses on the unique medical concerns that dominate large metropolitan areas, along with social concerns—including education, housing and income -- that affect lives and access to healthy living.

The NEOMED-CSU partnership is built on the premise that for a primary care physician to maintain a strong connection with the patient, the physician should have a full awareness of the community’s needs and strengths. Through the Urban Primary Care Initiative, students will complete many of their neighborhood-based experiences at various hospital and ambulatory care sites in the Cleveland metropolitan area. In the process, students will build relationships in Cleveland communities and gain an understanding of primary care practice in urban neighborhoods.