Task Force Recommendations Included in Prevention Program for Wayne State University Medical Students

Using the United States Preventive Services Task Force recommendations, the Family Medicine Program at Wayne State University School of Medicine emphasizes an evidence-based, patient-centered prevention program throughout its four-year curriculum. Over a 10-year period, approximately 2,560 students have been through the program.

In 2004, the school's Department of Family Medicine began piloting a demonstration project for medical students to do a four-week community clinic rotation using AHRQ's Interactive Preventive Services Selector Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) program as the foundation of their clerkship. Students are assigned to community preceptors, or clinical mentors. Their rotation calls for them to use the PDAs when working with patients. Through this process, students serve as role models for their clinical mentors in calling attention to the PDAs and demonstrating how to use them. This not only encourages students in using this technology, it also encourages their clinical mentors to adopt the technology.

"We greatly appreciate AHRQ's technology and the resources of the Task Force," says Tom Roe, MD, Director of Pre-doctoral Programs, Department of Family Medicine. "We've come to depend greatly upon these as a way to encourage and ground our students in evidence-based prevention and patient-centered care," he says.

Roe hopes to expand the community PDA program from an elective to a required four-week program by 2007-2008, which he anticipates could reach up to 300 students a year. Plans are in place to evaluate the program once it is fully launched.

Wayne State University School of Medicine is located in Detroit, Michigan. It is the largest single-campus medical school in the country.