FPR: Systems Engagement begins with Health Systems Science (HSS), where you will explore the healthcare system, discovering its inequities and highlighting its successes. The FPR: Systems Engagement curriculum guides you through some of the complex systems that make up healthcare, such as insurance programs and health care policy, under the guidance of professionals in those fields.

The course starts by examining the macrosystems (private insurance systems, Medicaid and Medicare, health policy) of health care. You will also consider the experience of individual patients in Case-Based Learning seminars to see how smaller systems of care (public transportation, transitions of care, cultural networks, local healthcare policy, hospital networks) affect the ability of providers to give care, as well as modify how patients navigate their illnesses and routine care. Throughout each session you will develop “systems thinking skills,” enabling you to understand and analyze systems. The first-year curriculum prepares you for success in clerkships and is foundational for projects such as quality improvement initiatives in subsequent years.

As you move through your clinical years, you will continue to examine how these systems can be leveraged to improve patient care, including how quality and safety are measured and improved in healthcare settings.