“When we put resources together - truly focused on patients and community - we see improved outcomes. That includes patient outcomes like improved HgA1Cs; community outcomes like increased knowledge of disease prevention; and student outcomes like empowerment and recognition of the roles that students can play in the community of solution."

Community Health Fellowship Program

The Community Health Fellowship Program introduces first year medical students to community-based participatory research, and emphasizes the importance of collaboration as a means for addressing community health problems in underserved communities. The focus of the experience is to develop relationships between the UT Southwestern Medical Center Community, and community-based health and social services delivery organizations in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The partnerships are designed to assist community-based organizations in identifying the needs of those they serve, investigating how well the needs are being met, evaluating additional resource needs, and providing information that can be used to obtain and coordinate additional resources. All work is done in a way that provides a useful product to the participating organization, while teaching medical students the value of collaboration to achieve optimal health outcomes among the underserved.

Now entering its fifth year, the Community Health Fellowship Program offers six students annually an opportunity to: 1) address the health care needs of inner-city and at-risk underserved patients in a community-based setting, 2) obtain real world clinical experience treating at-risk patients under the direction of a mentor, and 3) gain applied research knowledge through participating in a didactic research training curriculum combined with a community-health agency based research project. Many outstanding projects have been completed and have paved the way for further research and implementation of ideas and recommendations by the community agency. To see past projects, click here .

This fellowship is offered for 9 weeks during the summer, and provides a stipend of $3,000. A limited amount of additional funding is also available for presenting research findings at a national or regional professional meeting.

If you are interested in the program, please complete the application and return it by the March 2, 2007 deadline. This is available in PDF format If you do not have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software, click here to download it.

For more information, please contact: