First-year medical students at Cornell are learning under a new paradigm. As the first set of students in med school since “Obamacare” was passed, they are integrating different ways of looking at the future of medicine. Cornell is taking the lead on educating its medical students in interdisciplinary collaboration, a skill that will be necessary in the future as health care delivery changes. In the Interprofessional Training and Education course, jointly run by Cornell and Hunter College, medical students work collaboratively with public health, nursing, and social work students. In turn, they learn to value one another’s expertise and skills and to work effectively in teams. Cornell has also integrated a longitudinal experience for its first and second-year med students, who follow a cohort of patients throughout their med school years. This enables students to better understand the full context of a patient’s disease and the psychological and social impacts it has.

–Liza Thompson, Expert Medical School Admissions Consulting