The Meharry Medical College School of Medicine is proud of its role as a National Center of Excellence in minority health education.

Through its 133-year existence, the Meharry Medical College School of Medicine has maintained a reputation for producing highly educated and skilled African-American physicians. Today, it continues to provide an excellent education in the health professions and biomedical sciences with a focus on providing opportunities to African-Americans and other underrepresented ethnic minority students. While Meharry is a historically black college, its student body reflects the diversity of the nation, with members representing the African-American, Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American communities. Yet, the School of Medicine continues to emphasize its historical commitment to training African-American physicians.

Meharry Medical College, through its role as a national Center of Excellence [COE], will continue as a leader in minority health education. Meharry Medical College will also continue to expand medical education to better prepare future physicians to be effective with an increasingly diverse patient population.

There are six legislative requirements set forth in the COE guidelines:

Legislative Purpose (LP) 1-Student Performance- Objective 1.0 - To increase the on time (4year) graduation rate of African American students from 62% to 85% over the three years of the grant. Methodology: Strategies will include selection of competitive students from the BS/MD program, Mini Academic Program for Success, USMLE preparation, and academic support.

Legislative Purpose (LP) 2-Faculty Development- Objective 2.0 - To recruit, mentor, and retain 20 basic and clinical African American faculty members over the baseline of 95 during three years. Methodology- Recruitment activities will include meeting with the Meharry National Alumni Association, speaking with graduating residents, placing ads in national journals, identifying residents and post doctoral candidates at Meharry and other HBCUs who are interested in academic medicine, working with the alumni of the schools, posting on the internet and on the intranet at Meharry. The chairs of departments, the Dean, and the center directors will be responsible for ensuring that African American faculty members are recruited, mentored and retained. Strategies for retention will include professional leave, release time, professional conferences, and individual professional development plans.

Legislative Purpose 3- Information Resources/Clinical Education, Curricula and Cultural Competence- Objective 3.0 - Provide computer and information technology training to 40 faculty members in Year 1, 60 in Year 2, and 115 in Year 3. By the end of Year 1, 120 students will be able to use all electronic information resources that have been standardized for use campus-wide, 280 students by Year 2, and 394 by Year 3. Methodology- The Associate Dean for Academic Computing will train all students and faculty members in interactive teleconferencing, Blackboard, and web based applications. Under the directions of the course directors, all students participating in clinical clerkships will participate and demonstrate their clinical and cultural competency skills through electronic-based computerization. By the end of the project, the Associate Deans for Faculty Affairs and Development and Academic Computing will ensure that all faculty members and students have acquired basic technological skills.

Legislative Purpose (LP) 4-Faculty/Student Research-Objective 4 - To increase the number of African American students from 30 to 40 who complete a summer health services or basic research project over the three years of the grant. Methodology- The Program Director (EXPORT), the Director of the Research Core (EXPORT) and the Center Director will lead this effort. Students and faculty members will be paired in all years of the summer research project focusing on health services and basic science research as it relates to health disparities. It is anticipated that summer research projects will expose students to epidemiology, research design and methods, and academic and scientific writing for journals and books. Students will submit research plans and will participate in the Annual Student Research Day with their mentors.

Legislative Purpose (LP) 5-Student Training in Providing Health Care Services-Objective 5- To increase the number of students in community health settings in primary care training including rural health clinics from 10-15 in Year 1, 15- 30 in Year 2, and 30 to 45 in Year 3. Methodology- The Center for Optimal Health will take the lead in training 150 students over the course of three years. Strategies and approaches will build upon the existing curriculum such as clerkships, electives, and rotations.

Legislative Purpose (LP) 6 - Competitive Applicant Pool- Objective 6 -To increase the number of HBCUs that participates in the BS/MD program from 5 to 7 over the three years of the grant. Recruit and enroll five students per year from each school for a total of 30 students in Year 1 and 35 by the end of the grant. It is expected that 77 (85%) of the students will complete the program and enter medical school. Methodology- The Center Director will identify HBCUs in North Carolina and South Carolina as potential participants in Year 1 of the project. Meetings will include meeting with Director of Admissions and Academic Deans to offer the program. To increase student performance from these schools, structured summer academic and non-academic enrichment programs will be offered through working with Program Directors of the Health Career Opportunity Programs including the HCOP at Meharry.