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H R S A News Brief U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
Health Resources and Services Administration

HRSA NEWS ROOM
http://newsroom.hrsa.gov


June 01, 2004 Contact: HRSA Press Office
301-443-3376

Schools Are Chosen to Test New Cultural Competence, Ethnogeriatric Curricula

HRSA, in collaboration with the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) Foundation, has selected five medical and dental schools to test new curricula designed to help train future physicians and dentists in cultural competency and ethnogeriatrics.
 
Two medical and two dental schools were selected for the cultural competency curricula: Brown Medical School, Providence, R.I.; Midwestern University’s Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine; the University of Texas Dental Branch at Houston; and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Dental Medicine.  Stanford (Calif.) University School of Medicine was selected to test the ethnogeriatric curriculum.  The objective is to incorporate the courses into the schools' core curricula once they have been tested.
 
Cultural competency training helps medical and dental students understand and integrate distinct cultural values, beliefs, and behaviors into a plan for treating patients.  Ethnogeriatrics extends cultural competency training into geriatric care to help caregivers understand the complexities of caring for the nation’s growing elderly population.  
 
An expert review panel of medical and dental educators, health professionals with expertise in cultural competency and ethnogeriatrics, community representatives, and medical and dental students made the selections.  HRSA will provide technical assistance and limited funding to the schools for program development and evaluation. 
 
The project is part of the Achieving Diversity in Dentistry and Medicine (ADDM) program, which began in September 2003 as a four-year contract awarded by HRSA’s Bureau of Health Professions, Division of Medicine and Dentistry.  The program addresses issues in medical and dental education, the health workforce and leadership in medicine and dentistry.   For more information on the ADDM program, visit: www.amsa.org/addm.  For more information on HRSA’s health professions programs, visit http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/. 


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