Population Health Rounds: A Novel Vehicle for Training in Population Medicine and Clinical Preventive Medicine

Preventive medicine residents must train in population medicine (including analytics and population health) and clinical preventive medicine (including screening, behavioral counseling, and chemoprophylaxis). Yet, opportunities to perform both functions concurrently for the same population are scarce. Residents must also master the art of preventive medicine, but they often lack an established community of practice that provides a continuous forum to do so. This project explored Population Health Rounds as a novel vehicle to optimize preventive medicine residency training.

Modeled after traditional medical rounds, Population Health Rounds consist of a 1-hour weekly meeting engaging preventive medicine residents and supervising attendings at Stony Brook Medicine in both population medicine and clinical preventive medicine concurrently, including patient case discussions and targeted population health analytics.

Because of the pandemic, the rounds have predominantly focused on COVID-19 and its effects on the hospital employee population. In addition to providing direct patient care to COVID-19-positive and exposed employees, residents have analyzed data on this population and made recommendations to hospital leadership based on COVID-19's institutional epidemiology, including incidence, prevalence, and predictive factors. A formative qualitative survey of resident perceptions offers insights on the value and learning outcomes of this new model.

Factors that may impact the implementation, sustainability, and feasibility of this model are discussed. The preventive medicine residency program is commissioned to address gaps in clinical preventive services for the patient-centered medical home tied to the sponsoring institution's family medicine practice. Additional plans are underway to expand the rounds to other clinical contexts, such as lifestyle medicine in the occupational setting, and for targeted populations, such as the underserved. Replication of the Population Health Rounds model is recommended to determine its effectiveness.