Students enrolled in the Master of Science in Medical Sciences program (MSMS) at Ponce Health Sciences University (PHSU) are at the heart of solving health disparities throughout urban and rural areas where healthcare systems are either collapsing or nonexistent. That includes educating underrepresented and diverse populations residing within these communities.
For many students, earning a coveted spot in an MD program can be difficult. David Lenihan, J.D., Ph.D., and president of PHSU said students from underserved communities often lack the benefits and resources a student from a more privileged background may have.
“Once they get to undergrad, these students might receive a couple of C’s freshman year, and before they know it, they may reconsider a career in medicine,” Lenihan said. “But that’s misguided. These are smart students and sometimes they just need a little more support to achieve their goals.”
The school’s one-year Master of Science in Medical Sciences program enhances the credentials of students with a bachelor’s degree to better prepare them for entry into medical schools and other health sciences pathways.
Ponce Health Sciences University established this branch campus in 2018 in the Globe Building in the heart of downtown St. Louis to expand its vision of responding to a need for more healthcare professionals. PHSU prepares students with a world-class, culturally competent education that provides them with the skills to not only become doctors and professional healthcare providers, but to be able to tackle the cultural deficit in healthcare services within their own communities.
Training the next generation of practitioners in healthcare deserts
“Consider the lifelong value of youth in an underserved community seeing someone who looks like them in a white lab coat, walking to class every day, working as a doctor,” Lenihan said. “It lifts up the community by providing these individuals with a vision of what they, too, can do and be in the future.”
Bridge program lasts for only a year
During that gap year between undergrad and medical school, PHSU works to improve the academic profile for medical school applications with life science courses, in-person labs and classwork that reflects the curriculum of a typical first year of med school.
“After a year, our graduates leave with strengthened MD applications and opportunities they may not have had before,” he said.
The broad-based curriculum consists of 11 courses — 42 credit hours — in a wide range of sciences over the course of two full-time semesters. Classes mirror the first year of the MD program and include coursework in anatomy, cell biology, neuroscience, physiology, health disparities and medical ethics, to name a few. The MSMS program can also be completed online, consisting of five trimesters.
Student performance is revealed through data-driven feedback
Another unique attribute of the program is the monthly analytics reports that are created for each student. They include a detailed breakdown of how the student is performing across the board, providing them with a bird’s-eye view of their ability to proceed to medical school or perhaps pursue another professional healthcare pathway in dentistry, optometry, podiatry or pharmacy, among others. According to Lenihan, approximately 68% of the students enrolled in the program advance to MD programs.
Prospective students can learn more here.
