University of Maryland School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins University Expand Primary Care Celebration

The Academic Primary Care Symposium looks to boost student interest in Primary Care

What initially started as a celebratory reception for the Primary Care Track (PCT) elective at UMSOM has expanded into a much larger partnership with the Johns Hopkins University’s (JHU) Primary Care Consortium. The Academic Primary Care Symposium (APCS), first launched in 2016, started as a collaboration between the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s (UMSOM) Departments of Family and Community Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Pediatrics to celebrate the interest and success of UMSOM medical students enrolled in the PCT elective.

Across town, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine had been offering their Biennial Primary Care Consortium Retreat to Advance Primary Care for several years. In 2019, primary care leaders at the UMSOM and JHU’s Primary Care Consortium decided to collaborate in offering an educational program on a yearly basis that addresses primary care topics.

After a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the symposium returned this year in collaboration with Hopkins to Leadership Hall at UMSOM on May 8, 2023. The APCS welcomes medical and advanced practice provider students, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and residents, as well both academic and community faculty from across the state of Maryland who are interested in or practicing primary care medicine. The symposium was made possible by the generosity of the James and Carolyn Frenkil Charitable Foundation.

Symposium Co-directors Richard Colgan, MD, Professor of Family and Community Medicine at UMSOM, and Eliana M. Perrin, MD, MPH, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Primary Care at the Johns Hopkins University, kicked off the event with a few opening remarks.

 “It is our hope that, with the collaborative aspect of the event, the APCS will be able to cover more ground in the conversation about primary care in Maryland, not only on the East and West side of Baltimore but throughout the state of Maryland,” said Dr. Colgan.

Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) President, and UMSOM Dean Mark T. Gladwin, who is also Vice President for Medical Affairs, UMB, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor, welcomed guests and highlighted how the UMB plans to increase access to primary care in the local community.

 “We have to move beyond the ivory tower – the hospital -- to reach our communities,” said Dean Gladwin. “We are looking to create partnerships to deliver primary care throughout local populations.”

The event featured guest speaker Yalda Jabbarpour, MD, Director of the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, who emphasized the importance of investing in primary care. “There is a movement to increase the investment given to primary care throughout certain states in the U.S.,” said Dr. Jabbarpour. “Primary care improves population health and increases life expectancy.”

This year’s symposium was expanded to include submissions for an art in medicine display to accompany clinical abstract posters in prior years. Breakout sessions featuring the topic of advocacy in primary care were also incorporated, led by Nilesh Kalyanaraman, MD, Deputy Secretary for Public Health Services at the Maryland Department of Health; Laquandra Nesbitt, MD, MPH, Senior Associate Dean for Population Health Sciences and Health Equity, Bicentennial Endowed Professor of Medicine Health Sciences, and Executive Director of the Center for Population Health Sciences and Health Equity at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences; Casey Scott, MD, MPH,  Deputy Health Officer for the Dorchester County Health Department; and Letitia Dzirasa, MD, Baltimore City Commissioner of Health.

UMSOM’s PCT elective continues its efforts under the leadership of Alexander V. Herrera, MD, Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine, along with Leah S. Millstein, MD, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, and Nisha B. Divakaruni, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics. The PCT continues to attract interested medical students at UMSOM, with more than 75 percent of medical students in the program planning to become primary care doctors.