In 2010, Duke University School of Medicine launched its Primary Care Leadership Track (PCLT) to address the lack of primary care doctors nationally and more effectively offer patient care to populations. Today, according to U.S. News & World Report, Duke University School of Medicine is among the top ten medical schools in the country for primary care education.
“At Duke, we understand the demand for primary care physicians and we encourage our medical students to become involved in the community and become change agents to improve population health,” says Barbara Sheline, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Community and Family Medicine and director of PCLT.
The program builds on a longstanding partnership between Duke and the Durham community and enables students to better understand the causes of health disparities, create a strong research focus on community engagement, and learn how to redesign clinical programs to better serve patient needs. In the third year of the program, students complete a population health improvement research project, which requires a community engagement component.
Kathleen Campbell, a 4th year student in PCLT, finds the program both challenging and satisfying. “Once, I accompanied a patient to a chemotherapy appointment and witnessed the obstacles to the patient’s treatment plan due to transportation and childcare availability. I knew I wanted to be someone who could help find solutions to these types of problems.”
Campbell’s community research project created standardizing screening methods for children with developmental delays to ensure they received appropriate treatment.
According to Susan Rogers, PCLT’s senior program coordinator, the program has been a great success. In 2016, the nine graduates of PCLT got their first choice in primary care residency programs. Six are pursuing careers in family medicine, two in pediatrics and one in internal medicine.
A scholarship of $40,000 is awarded to PCLT students in their fourth year, once they have successfully matched in a primary care residency program. They must remain in a primary care field for at least 5 years, or the scholarship reverts to a loan.