Using a longitudinal case-based approach to teach population health and disease prevention

Abstract

Background and purpose: Both colleges of pharmacy in one state separately required a two-credit public and population health course. These courses had been exclusively conducted in a traditional lecture-based format, with little active learning components. Our goal was to redesign and align these required courses across the two colleges of pharmacy using a longitudinal, case-based, active-learning curriculum. Educational activity and setting: Two interprofessional faculty from each university met bi-weekly via videoconference or telephone to: (1) develop an integrated, longitudinal, case-based curriculum with lecture/didactic/case-based materials; and (2) identify and implement an evaluation plan. This course curriculum applied problem-based learning and team-based learning approaches to the Clinical Prevention & Population Health Curricular Framework developed by the Healthy People Curriculum Task Force. Findings: Course evaluations were used to analyze curricular outcomes. Improvement in course evaluation scores and student survey results remained consistent over three years. Students' written comments have also remained overwhelmingly positive over the three-year implementation period. Summary: An interprofessionally developed, longitudinal, case-based curriculum for teaching disease prevention and population health using a social determinants of health approach was determined to be an improved teaching methodology over previous iterations. Although there were challenges in implementing the curriculum across two separate institutions, the overwhelming result was perceived to be positive for both schools, faculty members, and students.