acclaimed CDU Advantage. The CDU Advantage is both unique and innovative in its application of the University’ s approach to educating future healthcare leaders. Central to its application are the five pillars on which it stands:
• Research Experience: Excellence in Specialized Knowledge and Research.
• Social Justice: Advocacy based a broad cultural diversity awareness.
• Global-International Experience: A focus on comparative health disparities in the global setting.
• Community Engagement: Experiential Education through engagement with underserved communities.
• Health Policy: Education focused on the sociopolitical dynamics of health as a key part of leadership training and development.
Encouraged by University administrators, teaching and research faculty have embraced the CDU Advantage as one of the key defining elements in a 21st Century medical education rubric fundamental to student training. This strategy underscores the important value that regardless of social status or ability to pay, clients should always be treated equally and receive the best care available. There is the practical reality that community residents are resilient, with unique coping skills that enhance their ability to be active partners in the treatment process. successful treatment outcomes. It should be noted that a large number of CDU-trained professionals are themselves products of underserved communities where multiple languages are spoken.
Community Faculty are very critical to the University’ s active understanding of the importance of such important factors as acquiring cultural competency and language acquisition so that physicians and their professional colleagues can serve as the best possible patient advocates.
The utilization of a fully qualified Community Faculty that serves as a liaison with the resident population helps the technically knowledgeable academic faculty to enjoy a much greater access to, and understanding of, the community’ s most vital needs.
The results? Quite impressive. As the University embarks on this new chapter in its history, important milestones have been achieved. CDU ranks at the top of the national rankings in faculty diversity, all-campus diversity, and status as a value-added institution.
The University is now hitting its stride and the presence of the new 4-Year MD Program will only add to its status as a world-class institution. We welcome you to join us.
Warmly,
Deborah Prothrow-Stith, MD Dean, College of Medicine
Healthcare practitioners with patient care responsibilities must recognize the value of being active listeners who are attuned to the importance of effective communication as an important pathway to
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 4