Welcome to John Sealy SOM Educational Affairs

Areas of Scholarly Concentration

  • Aerospace Medicine
    The Aerospace Medicine Concentration is designed to educate medical students about Aerospace Medicine and space biomedical research. Students are introduced to aerospace physiology, space medicine and space life sciences research, an introductory course in aerospace medicine, and career opportunities.  For more information, please contact Heather Peel.
  • Bilingual Health
    The Bilingual Health Scholarly Concentration is designed to graduate culturally and ethically competent bilingual in Spanish physicians. For more information, please contact Norma A. Perez Raifaisen, MD, DrPH.
  • Community Engagement
    The Community Engagement Scholarly Concentration combines key aspects of the Global Health, Public Health, and Rural Health Scholarly Concentrations to enable students to participate in well-rounded, longitudinal, mentored scholarship in a variety of settings, both domestically and abroad. Please contact Bradley Brock for more information.
  • Global Health
    The Global Health Scholarly Concentration is the home to many global health training opportunities at UTMB.  Various training opportunities are open to students in all four of our academic schools.  Please contact Dr. Matthew Dacso or Bradley Brock for more information.
  • Geriatric Health
    The Geriatric Scholarly Concentration at UTMB is a four year learning experience that provides a unique opportunity to enhance knowledge, skill sets, values and expertise in the care of older adults.  Please contact Dr. Vinod Kaushik or Leslie Simpton for more information.
    • Public Health
      The Public Health Scholarly Concentration provides medical students interested in public health careers or concerned about public health issues with focused training in public health research and practice skills within the four-year Integrated Medical Curriculum.  Please contact Denny Fe Agana-Norman, PhD, MPH, CPH or Arielle Bennett for more information.
      • Public Health
        The Public Health Scholarly Concentration provides medical students interested in public health careers or concerned about public health issues with focused training in public health research and practice skills within the four-year Integrated Medical Curriculum.  Please contact Denny Fe Agana-Norman, PhD, MPH, CPH or Arielle Bennett for more information.
      • Physician Healer
        The Physician Healer Scholarly Concentration is designed to mentor students as they develop their professional identity as doctors. The training focuses on self-awareness, self-reflection, interpersonal communication skills, self-care and work-life balance. Being a source of healing for the suffering of another is both a responsibility and a privilege. In addition to our technical knowledge and skills, being a healer requires training in equanimity, wisdom and compassion.  Please email Pht@utmb.edu for more information
      • Rural Health
        UTMB medical students that have an interest in working in a rural area will benefit by joining the Rural Health Scholarly Concentration. The Rural Health Scholarly Concentration provides opportunities that serve to expand existing curricular experiences that emphasize the practice of rural medicine throughout the 4 years of medical school.  Please contact Dr. Oscar W. Brown or Brian Sullivan for more information.
      • Translational Research
        Translational research integrates basic research, patient-oriented research, and population-based research and leads to the transformation of scientific discoveries made in the laboratory, clinical setting, or population setting to clinical applications such as interventions to prevent, diagnose, or treat disease.  Please contact Dr. Judith Aronson or Donna Adams for more information.

      Purpose of the areas of Scholarly Concentration:
      To provide interested students opportunities to receive expanded learning experiences in non-specialty-based areas of emphasis while completing the 4-year Integrated Medical Curriculum.

      Duration:
      Areas of Scholarly Concentration will entail 5-6 months of elective and selective experiences. A variety of configurations with regard to timing is possible. Greater flexibility will allow students to enter the concentration at multiple points. The following examples are simply for illustrative purposes and are not meant to exclude other approaches.

      Number of Months
      Between years 1-212011
      Year 3 elective 11110
      Year 4 electives21333
      Year 4 selective* 12111
      TOTAL 5 6 5 6 5

      *BSHS, ACS or Acting Internship

      Project Requirement:
      Programs must require a scholarly project and product (e.g., manuscript, oral presentation) for successful completion. The project should represent the culmination of 5-6 months of immersion in the field. It is expected that Concentration Directors will hold these projects to a substantially higher standard than the typical BSHS scholarly project.

      Partial Participation:
      Electives and other activities should be open to interested students who do not intend to complete the entire Scholarly Concentration. Program directors may establish prerequisites for specific electives.

      Student Recognition:
      Successful completion of all Scholarly Concentration requirements will result in a designation of "Scholar in Concentration name" on the student's transcript and in the commencement program. A certificate of completion will be issued at the time of graduation along with the student's UTMB diploma. Participation will also be reflected in the student's MSPE ("Dean's letter").

      Funding:
      Student completion of Scholarly Concentration-related electives and selectives will trigger teaching fund allocations to the home department of the responsible faculty member(s). A modest budget will be provided to the concentration director for concentration-related expenses.

      Approval:
      Scholarly Concentrations must be approved in advance by the Curriculum Committee.