Enhancing Behavioral and Social Sciences in Undergraduate Medical Education

In July 2004, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its report on Improving Medical Education Enhancing the Behavioral and Social Science Content of Medical School Curricula, to which OBSSR contributed funds. The IOM report summarized how undergraduate medical school curriculum should be enhanced to address critical health issues faced in the United States today. One major finding was that approximately half of all causes of mortality in the U.S. are linked to social and behavioral factors such as smoking, diet, alcohol, sedentary life-style and accidents. While it is generally recognized that biomedical research alone cannot address these issues, the IOM found that the curriculum in most U.S. medical schools does not provide sufficient teaching about these behavioral and social risk factors.

In response to the IOM report, the OBSSR, in cooperation with five NIH Institutes and Centers, issued the Request for Applications (RFA) Strengthening Behavioral and Social Science in Medical Schools (RFA-OD-05-001) in October 2004 (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-OD-05-001.html). Over the following two years, OBSSR funded grants to nine medical schools to develop, pilot, and disseminate behavioral and social sciences modified curricula across the six Domains identified by the IOM: 1) Mind-Body Interactions in Health and Disease, 2) Patient Behavior, 3) Physician Role and Behavior, 4) Physician-Patient Interactions, 5) Social and Cultural Issues in Health Care, and 6) Health Policy and Economics.

Although the projects vary with respect to the focus of the interventions, all nine medical schools are addressing how to incorporate behavioral and social sciences content throughout all four years of medical school in both the preclinical and clinical curricula. These medical schools are collaborating with each other closely. Approximately 6,100 medical students will be affected by curricular innovations over the next two years of this five-year collaborative. Individual institutions in the collaborative are using a variety of evaluative methods and tools (e.g., curricular mapping, qualitative and quantitative assessments) to evaluate the effectiveness of these curricular innovations. The results from these evaluations will help promote the dissemination of effective components and ideas to other medical schools. Examples of the curricular changes implemented include incorporation of bio-psychosocial approaches that stress holistic, culturally sensitive, and interactive approaches to patient care, development of student empathy, communication, and teamwork skills with a particular focus on patient safety, and promotion of lifelong habits of self-directed learning and self-care.

For more information, see the Progress Report from November 2008.