Ethics in MD/MPH Curricula: A Case Study Describing Unique Considerations for Dual-Degree Students

This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. Ethics is a general core competency in undergraduate medical education (UME) and represents an accepted and established component of the contemporary medical curriculum as required by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). Similarly, ethics is a key element in many professional degrees of public health, including the Master and Doctor of Public Health programs, as mandated by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH). The recent rise of dual-degree programs integrating Doctor of Medicine or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine training with Master's in Public Health, coupled with the lack of formal educational guidelines for integrating ethics into such programs, represents a new challenge to educators. In 2011, the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine (UMMSM) launched the nation's largest MD/MPH dual-degree cohort. This initiative serves as a case study of ethics playing a supporting role in such dual-degree programs. Although preliminary assessments are encouraging, additional evaluation is necessary to determine the effectiveness of integrating ethics training in dual-degree programs.