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Community Action Research Track (CART)
 The Community Action Research Track (CART) offers medical students opportunities to promote healthier behaviors, address key health issues within communities, and engage in service-learning activities with the underserved.
Students participate in community-based service learning experiences and didactic sessions designed to improve their skills in community medicine. Through these experiences they contribute to improving health in the underserved communities where they train. The program is based on the principles of population medicine with special emphasis on community-based health promotion and disease prevention.
The CART introduces students to the population health perspective through active community engagement and collaboration. In addition, the CART program seeks to increase engagement of students in a coordinated program of didactic and service-learning opportunities designed to improve health and reduce health disparities in underserved communities.
This approach emphasizes the need for population-based strategies incorporating the principles of health promotion and disease prevention, in order to promote optimal health outcomes for all regardless of age, race and ethnicity, gender, income, or education level.
The CART provides students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to effectively improve and maintain the health of all people, and in a way that allows students to contribute to reducing and eliminating health disparities among the underserved.
Goals and Objectives
The CART is based on the principles, goals and objectives of the Healthy People 2010 national initiative. It examines the social determinants of health, which include lifestyle and behavior, genetics, environment and access to care. The guiding philosophy of the program is to promote optimal health outcomes for all, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, gender, income or education level.
The primary objective of the program is to develop and implement a full, four-year training curriculum based on the population medicine perspective that can serve as a model for other programs. This approach provides research and service-learning opportunities to students, allowing them to help reduce and eliminate health disparities among the underserved.
Design
The CART is a three-year program combining community-based effectiveness research with care delivery in underserved areas, with research data collection and evaluation being cumulative over the course of the program. Students participate in a coordinated program of instruction, electives, ambulatory care rotations and service-learning experiences.
The program consists of five (5) core curriculum experiences, including:
- Core Concepts Seminar (CCS)
- Public Health and International Health Pre-Clinical Electives (PCE)
- Community Medicine Elective (CME)
- Ambulatory Care Family Medicine Rotation (ACR) in an underserved setting
- Participation in the Community Service Core (CSC).
To read more about the curriculum, visit the CART Curriculum, Faculty, and Friends page.
Students who complete all requirements receive a Certificate of Knowledge in Community Medicine.
To learn more, download the CART.
CART enrollment is easy! Simply click the link below to visit the NEW Division of Community Medicine web site to enroll.
CART ENROLLMENT! CLICK HERE!!
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