Albert Einstein College of Medicine and CUNY School of Public Health Collaborate to Offer Medical Students M.D./M.P.H. Program

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Oct 10, 2019, 17:03 ET

BRONX, N.Y., Oct. 10, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) announced an agreement today to offer Einstein medical students an opportunity to complete a five-year program resulting in a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree from Einstein and a Master's Degree in Public Health (M.P.H.) degree from CUNY SPH.

With its new M.D./M.P.H. program, Einstein joins a group of approximately 80 medical schools across the nation with similar programs available at a single institution or in collaboration with another. Einstein is initially offering this opportunity to the Class of 2023 and will make it available to all subsequent incoming M.D. students.

"We are delighted to partner with such a highly regarded and nationally-ranked program in order to extend the training and career opportunities for our medical students," said Joshua Nosanchuk, M.D., senior associate dean for medical education and professor of medicine and of microbiology & immunology at Einstein. "CUNY SPH's M.P.H. will naturally extend the thread of social justice that is woven throughout Einstein's culture and curriculum, which includes a strong emphasis on understanding the social and structural determinants of health and how to help mitigate them for our patients and communities."

Path to Public Health Leadership

Physicians with M.P.H. degrees work in a variety of settings, including departments of health, nonprofit organizations, and research institutions. CUNY SPH will open three areas of concentration to Einstein students: health policy and management, environmental and occupational health sciences, and public health nutrition.

"We look forward to welcoming Einstein students into our school," said Elizabeth Kelvin, Ph.D., M.P.H., interim assistant dean for curriculum innovation and implementation and associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at CUNY SPH. "It's an exciting opportunity to help send a group of doctors into the world with the clinical and public health training that will allow them to take both an individual patient and a community or population perspective in their practice."

It typically takes two years to earn an M.P.H. degree, when pursued separately. However, the structure of the new program will allow Einstein students to complete both their M.D. and M.P.H. degrees in five years.

Participating students will begin their M.P.H. coursework online during the summer after their first year of medical school. They also will conduct fieldwork during their first or third summer. During a gap year after their third year at Einstein, they will take their remaining courses, finish up fieldwork, if necessary, and have the opportunity to pursue publishable research projects with mentors from Einstein and CUNY. While all coursework is offered through CUNY SPH, Einstein's Global Health Fellowship Program and Student Research Fellowship can be used to fulfill their fieldwork requirement.

Partners in Research and Health

In its Best Public Health Schools list, U.S. News & World Report ranks CUNY SPH 23^rd in the nation—making it the second-highest ranked school in New York State and the only public school in the top 25 in the tristate area.

Jill Raufman, M.P.H., M.S., associate director of Einstein's Global Health Center and director of Einstein's Global Health Fellowship Program, spearheaded the M.P.H partnership. "As an alum of CUNY SPH, I can personally attest to the excellence of the program and the quality of the faculty," she said. "Our program is also a flexible and affordable option for our students who want to pursue an M.P.H. and are seeking additional training for leadership positions in public health and healthcare systems."

Einstein and CUNY also have collaborated on two major research initiatives funded by the National Institutes of Health: the Einstein-Rockefeller-CUNY Center for AIDS Research and the International epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS Central Africa Project. The M.D./M.P.H. partnership will provide additional opportunities for research collaborations among and between the faculty and students at both institutions.

About Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine is one of the nation's premier centers for research, medical education and clinical investigation. During the 2018-2019 academic year, Einstein is home to 711 M.D. students, 160 Ph.D. students, 107 students in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program, and 265 postdoctoral research fellows. The College of Medicine has more than 1,800 full-time faculty members located on the main campus and at its clinical affiliates. In 2018, Einstein received more than $172 million in awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This includes the funding of major research centers at Einstein in aging, intellectual development disorders, diabetes, cancer, clinical and translational research, liver disease, and AIDS. Other areas where the College of Medicine is concentrating its efforts include developmental brain research, neuroscience, cardiac disease, and initiatives to reduce and eliminate ethnic and racial health disparities. Its partnership with Montefiore, the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein, advances clinical and translational research to accelerate the pace at which new discoveries become the treatments and therapies that benefit patients. Einstein runs one of the largest residency and fellowship training programs in the medical and dental professions in the United States through Montefiore and an affiliation network involving hospitals and medical centers in the Bronx, Brooklyn and on Long Island. For more information, please visit www.einstein.yu.edu, read our blog, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and view us on YouTube.

About the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy

The CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) is committed to teaching, research and service that creates a healthier New York City and helps promote equitable, efficient and evidence-based solutions to pressing health problems facing cities around the world. For more information, visit sph.cuny.edu.

SOURCE Albert Einstein College of Medicine