A few key points and frequent questions about the AODs:

• Residents choose their AOD during their intern year, except for Molecular Medicine. Applicants interested in Molecular Medicine must choose this AOD when applying for internship.
• It is certainly not a requirement to choose an AOD, but the majority of the residents choose to do so.
• With the exception of PRIME and Molecular Medicine (only for categoricals), residents from any of the tracks may enter any of the other four AODs.

Descriptions of the AODs

Medical Education

This program is geared for residents who are interested in making medical education part of their future career plans--including academic medicine faculty positions (clinician educators and general medicine research), medical education research, and medical education administration. Participants will obtain hands-on experience teaching and mentoring on the UCSF campus and join a local community of like-minded faculty and trainees. Residents will participate in didactic curriculum specifically addressing issues of how to improve one's teaching, curricular development, medical education research, and leadership skills. Participants will also complete a mentored scholarly project relating to medical education and will formally teach medical students on the UCSF campus.

Important website: UCSF Academy of Medical Educators

Faculty contact: Katherine Julian, M.D., Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, AOD Director

Primary Medical Education program (PRIME)

The Primary Medical Education program (PRIME), (also known as "Program in Residency Investigation Methods and Epidemiology" or "People Really Into Medical Epidemiology") is an area of distinction that focuses on outpatient clinical training, behavioral medicine, and clinical research skills. PRIME Residents may go into subspecialty or primary care fields. The Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) and clinical research training that make up a large part of the PRIME curriculum teaches residents the fundamentals of clinical evidence by giving them the skills in clinical research methods, mentoring, and protected time to complete a clinical research project during residency. Our goal is to give the residents a chance to "try out" a career in clinical outcomes research during residency by completing an academic "PRIME project". These projects range from educational interventions (e.g. an examination of residents' screening habits for domestic violence) to secondary data analyses in outcomes research (e.g. evaluation of kidney disease as a predictor of revascularization outcomes); to meta-analysis (e.g. examination of the test-characteristics of alpha-fetal protein levels in screening for hepatocellular carcinoma). Residents pursue topics that they feel passionate about and that can be utilized to become experts in their field. Approximately 60% of PRIME projects are accepted for publication.

Important website: Education Research Projects

Faculty Contacts: Jeffrey Kohlwes M.D., MPH, AOD Director
Rebecca Shunk, M.D., Associate AOD Director

UCSF Global Health

Global health is a two-year curriculum designed to cultivate future leaders in global health medicine. The program involves dedicated cross-disciplinary education through a one-month core elective, bimonthly evening meetings, and bimonthly continuing education during block. Residents are taught basic global health principles through a range of fundamental topics (including core knowledge, disease-specific knowledge, and leadership skills). By participating in this AOD, residents will gain exposure to multiple career paths within global health and increase networking and mentorship opportunities with global health faculty.

All global health residents design and complete projects on a global health topic of their choice and participate in an immersion elective abroad. (Currently, there are training sites in Uganda, Kenya, Saipan, and China). Through these activities we hope residents will gain facility with current issues in global health, increased cross-cultural competence, and exposure to health care in resource-limited settings.

Website: Global Health Clinical Scholars Program

Faculty Contact: Madhavi Dandu, M.D., MPH, AOD Director

Health Equity: Academics and Advocacy Training (HEAAT)

The Internal Medicine Health Equity Residency Training Program is centered at San Francisco General Hospital. All residents receive training in Social Medicine, and it is this curriculum that makes up an integral part of the AOD. Through a series of seminars, lectures, field trips and case conferences, residents explore how social factors influence illness and the practice of medicine and gain an in-depth knowledge of the issues surrounding disparities in health and health care by concentrating on care of vulnerable patients both within the context of the doctor-patient relationship and healthcare delivery systems. The ambulatory/elective time includes such didactic sessions as well as clinical rotations. Training for primary care, subspecialty bound, and international medicine residents will be similar, though clinic elective rotations may be different. All residents are strongly encouraged to complete and present mentored scholarly projects that are community or advocacy based.

Faculty Contact: Sharad Jain, M.D., AOD Director

Leadership and Health Systems

This program seeks participants with a strong interest in leadership and system change. Future plans could be varied but include: leading or managing a group, division, or department; running programs (including grants, public health initiatives, clinics); medical administration; leading patient safety or quality initiatives; and engaging health policy changes. Participants meet weekly during the ambulatory block for didactics in leadership development, quality and safety, and health policy. They are paired with an individual mentor in a high-level leadership position based on their interest (within or outside of UCSF) and complete a project of their choice designing and implementing a system change. All participants also sit on one decision-making body at UCSF Medical Center based on their interests.

Websites of interest: The Center for the Health Professions
Pediatric Leadership for the Underserved Program

Faculty Contact: Arpana R. Vidyarthi, M.D., AOD Director

Molecular Medicine

The Molecular Medicine Training Program (MMTP) welcomes physicians in the fields of Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Dermatology, Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, who are committed to a career in basic or translational biomedical research. The goal is to provide advanced training in the experimental study of the molecular and cellular basis of disease. This is done through individual laboratory research, lectures, seminars and journal clubs. In addition, through an individual advisory/mentoring system, the program provides guidance and advice about the practicalities of pursuing a career at the interface of science and medicine. Molecular Medicine residents have guaranteed admission to the UCSF subspecialty fellowship of their choice (contingent upon satisfactory completion of residency training). This applies even to those who do not know which field they plan to enter at the commencement of the residency. Many Molecular Medicine residents will pursue the American Board of internal medicine research pathway ("short-tracking") into that subspecialty fellowship (meaning they enter fellowship after only two years of residency).

Trainees interested in physician-scientist careers and the Molecular Medicine AOD must apply for Molecular Medicine positions during the internship selection process.

Faculty Director: Don Ganem, M.D., AOD Director
Contact: Deborah Blackburn