A new partnership allowing Kansas City University students to pursue a Master of Public Health from the UNMC College of Public Health while earning a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine is proving to be highly valuable, according to current students.
Partially in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which emphasized the role public health plays in medical outcomes, the UNMC College of Public Health partnered with KCU to offer public health education to its osteopathic medical students. The program, established in 2021, allows KCU students to gain a more complete understanding of their future patients’ overall health and potential health disparities.
Students say the DO/MPH dual degree prepares them for the realities of caring for people whose health can be affected by numerous, complex and often intangible factors, such as the environment and societal biases.
“I thought public health would be a good foundation of bedrock for clinical medicine,” said Joseph Williams, a first-year KCU student in the DO/MPH program. “The systems that impact our everyday living — like the food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink — all have direct impacts on our health. Our health is more than just going to the doctor and going home. It’s about comprehensive, holistic, everyday living.”
Williams said he gained a special appreciation for public health through a former job in clinical research for Suboxone, a medication used to treat opioid use disorder by relieving withdrawal symptoms and cravings. Seeing people in long-term recovery from their addictions able to support others through treatment illustrated the power of community-level public health, he said.
“When I was applying to medical schools, I was looking for programs that had a focus on public health because that’s something that’s very important to me,” Williams said. “I’ve seen that with the curriculum, and I’ve seen that with the partnership that they have with UNMC. I think it’s a really fantastic collaboration.”
The UNMC College of Public Health curriculum includes 42 credit hours in online courses. Students who complete five foundational courses over two years will earn a Certificate in Public Health, and those who choose to continue can earn a full MPH degree over the next two years.
Hanh Pham, who has finished her second year of medical school at KCU, said she has enjoyed the certificate-level courses and looks forward to earning a full MPH degree online from UNMC.
“When this opportunity from UNMC was brought into the DO program, I wanted to learn more about public health and try the certificate program. I really liked it,” Pham said. “It’s actually very helpful to be able to learn medicine and then public health in parallel … especially with the pandemic, which brought up the need for immediate understanding and application of public health and medicine together.”