University of Southern California

Primary Care Initiative Program

Family Medicine Website
This site includes valuable information and links that allow students to explore a career in family medicine. Such helpful information include research opportunities, community resources, scholarship and loan options, family medicine professional organizations, fellowships, and summer and volunteer opportunities for first through fourth year medical students. In addition, students can contribute to a wiki providing the USC-Keck community with first-hand information about preceptor experiences.

Community Medicine & Advocacy Lectures Series
This monthly lecture series at the Keck School of Medicine will provide students, who are interested in a community medicine based career, exposure to a myriad of community medicine, leadership and legislative interactive presentations.

Introduction to Community Medicine Focus Experience (ICM)
The community-based focus experience is designed to introduce medical students to the challenges and rewards of community-based primary care by providing them with the opportunities to spend a day observing doctors and their medical staff, conducting patient histories and physical exams, among other learning experiences.

1st & 2nd Years Longitudinal Clinical Community Medicine Experiences
Through a longitudinal shadowing/mentorship experience with a primary care provider in a community clinic, medical students will be exposure to a variety of aspects of community -based primary care over the course of their first two years of medical school. Such experiences include learning about the establishment of medical homes for low income families and individuals, chronic disease management, and public health, particularly the broader social determinants of health.

Geriatric Community Medicine Focus Experiences
This experience is designed to introduce medical students to community-based geriatric and ambulatory care through a day in an assisted living facility. Students are given practical education and opportunities to evaluate individual geriatric patients in their home, perform mental status exams and medication assessments, as well as safety and ADL/IADL assessments.

4th Year Community Medicine Elective
The 4th year community medicine elective is under development and is being designed to immerse the interested 4th year medical student s into community health through a variety of experiences including patient contacts in a variety of community medicine venues, legislative opportunities, and working with members from a community medicine health care team. In addition, students will gain an understanding of billing, coding, and other economic parameters that sustain the viability of a community medicine clinic.

Community Preceptors & Family Medicine Clerkship Sites
There are multiple venues in which USC Keck medical students can experience community-based medicine throughout their four years of medical school including inner city sites in Los Angeles, suburban and HMO sites, school, homeless and free clinics, rural health sites in California, Hawaii, Arkansas and Alaska, HIV sites, and a tribal health center.