May 10, 2021 – Cleveland Clinic and the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine are working together to train primary care physicians through a new medical education program.
The first cohort of eight students to complete the Transformative Care Continuum (TCC) graduated Saturday, May 8 – just three years after they started medical school rather than the traditional four.
Developed and launched in 2018 in partnership with Cleveland Clinic, the Transformative Care Continuum is an accelerated curriculum where select students at the Heritage College, Cleveland, are admitted directly into family medicine residency programs at Cleveland Clinic Akron General or Cleveland Clinic Lakewood Family Health Center. During the three years of medical school, students work alongside interprofessional healthcare teams and take on increasing patient care responsibilities before beginning the three-year family medicine residency at the same site.
Heritage College faculty and Cleveland Clinic residency directors jointly developed the curriculum, forming a collaboration between medical education and healthcare to align physician training with what medicine needs.
The Heritage College is one of 37 medical schools nationwide in the American Medical Association’s Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium. While many consortium members are investigating single curriculum changes meant to fill specific gaps in healthcare, the Heritage College is the only medical school making such a wholesale change for a cohort of eight students per year, the organizations said.
During their third year of medical school, Transformative Care Continuum students complete self-directed projects through which they partner with community organizations to create programs that address regional health challenges, particularly for populations in greatest need.