KCU, UNMC to offer simultaneous DO, MPH degrees

The KCU Medical School and the University of Nebraska Medical Center will be partnering to offer medical students simultaneous Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine and a Master of Public Health degrees.

The dual degree program will be offered to students at the KCU campuses in both Kansas City and Joplin.

This dual degree arose, in part, because of the COVID-19 public health crisis as well as the need to address the increasingly complex healthcare needs of society.

The dual curriculum will be offered online and delivered over a four-year period.

“Now, more than ever, the modern health-care system needs physicians who think beyond caring for each patient by also understanding the social/political influencers of health,” said Rex Archer, MD, MPH, director of Population and Public Health and professor in the Department of Curriculum & Integrated Learning for KCU.

“To that end, medical schools are increasingly incorporating instruction centered on components that determine a person’s health status into their curriculum,” Archer added.  “Additionally, health insurance reimbursement oftentimes focuses not only on a physician’s individual encounters with his or her patients, but how well he or she keeps their patient population as a whole. This program will better prepare future physicians for these challenges and opportunities.”