About the Program

The SELECT program is much more than an honors program or enhancement of the traditional medical curriculum. Students admitted to SELECT develop leadership skills that will arm them with the knowledge, resources, and network to change the healthcare landscape for the better. These include:

  • Making a difference in the lives of patients, peers, community, and hospitals.
  • Applying continuous improvement approaches to optimize healthcare quality, patient safety, and efficient use of resources.
  • Building resilience to operate efficiently in complex health systems.
  • Acquiring tools to become a change catalyst.
  • Becoming a driving force for the evolution of healthcare quality.
Students spend their first two years taking classes at the Tampa-based USF Morsani College of Medicine, and then go to Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, PA, for two years to focus on clinical education.

Across all four years, SELECT students are mentored by some of the most respected medical faculty in the country from each campus. This creates meaningful, lifelong relationships that offer an extended network of connections for influencing major initiatives that can change the health of individuals or communities, as well as the future of medicine.

Central to the SELECT program is the opportunity for students to shape their own educational experience at two institutions that are already setting new standards for both medical education and healthcare practice. The partnership of USF and LVHN combines proven strengths from both organizations and offers students a bridge that connects their learning across all four years.

Our program elevates learning by immersing students in three medical environments within one program:

  • A major Level I tertiary care hospital
  • A community hospital
  • An inner-city health center, where cutting-edge technology is completely integrated into medical learning.
Both USF and LVHN are national leaders for their pioneering programs. Here are some prime examples of the mirroring and bridging taking place at USF and LVHN that can help illustrate the added value SELECT students will experience through this partnership:

A culture of innovation, evidenced by:

  • The USF Morsani College of Medicine was chosen to be part of the Carnegie Foundation’s National Review of Medical Curricula, a study analyzing standard and innovative approaches to teaching medicine (USF is in the innovative category).
  • Lehigh Valley Health Network is one of the nation's Top 5 Performing Hospitals as ranked by the University HealthSystem Consortium, or UHC. It’s a group of 107 hospitals that annually report data on key quality measures. It includes big-name institutions such as Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins and Mayo Clinic—all of which the health network surpasses.
  • Lehigh Valley Health Network is listed as one of the 30 Best Hospitals in America by Becker’s Hospital review for its use of Toyota-inspired “lean” principles to help eliminate waste and inefficiency in health care, such as delays in treatment and unnecessary diagnostic tests.
  • Lehigh Valley Health Network is pioneering the Medical Home concept. As part of that, seven of the health network’s practices were selected by the Governor's Office of Healthcare Reform to participate in the Pennsylvania Chronic Care Initiative
  • Lehigh Valley Health Network has been listed by U.S. News & World Report for 15 consecutive years as one of America’s Best Hospitals, with a total of 31 specialty category listings in the past seven years alone.

A culture of research, evidenced by:

  • More than $250,000 is committed yearly by USF Morsani College of Medicine leadership to summer research opportunities for medical students between their first and second years.
  • Faculty-mentored scholarly concentrations for USF medical students in areas of special interest, including business and entrepreneurship, health disparities, health system engineering, public health and research.
  • A research program started by Lehigh Valley Health Network was seventh in the nation to receive full accreditation from the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP) and creates a learning environment for students to experience the highest-quality research and the most comprehensive protection for research participants.

A culture of safety and technology, evidenced by:

  • An accredited USF simulation center that provides more than 30,000 learning experiences each year with its high-fidelity simulation technology and standardized patients – offering medical students a safe place to practice and learn from errors without putting real patients at risk.
  • The Leapfrog Group gave Lehigh Valley Health Network the highest possible rating in several important quality and safety practices, as well as inclusion on the American Hospital Association’s lists for the “100 Most Wired" and "25 Most Wireless" hospitals in the United States, immersing medical students in a technologically-advanced environment that improves the safety and quality of care delivery.
  • Lehigh Valley Health Network's is at the forefront for using health information technology and videoconferencing to connect doctors and ICU patients. This creates an extra layer of care for intensive care patients and significantly lowers death rates by nearly 30 percent. Medical students will participate in this telemedicine initiative and others.

A culture of teamwork, evidenced by:

  • A curriculum in which USF medical students learn alongside doctor of physical therapy students in the first year and are taught by nurses, physicians, public health professionals and basic scientists – laying the foundation for successful collaborative practice.
  • Rounding at Lehigh Valley Health Network involves the entire health care team (physicians, nurses, therapists, dietitians, medical residents and students, etc.) and occurs in a patient’s room with family members present. This creates a collaborative environment with a free flow of information between clinicians and patients.

A culture of community outreach, evidenced by:

  • The student-run, faculty-supervised BRIDGE Healthcare Clinic supported by the American Medical Association and Florida Department of Health, where students from medicine and other health disciplines bring free primary care and social services to uninsured people living near USF.
  • The USF Health Service Corps through which student volunteers from medicine and other health professions contributed nearly 1,500 hours in 2009 to health screenings, health education, and fitness and safety activities in medically diverse communities.
  • The American Hospital Association awarded the Carolyn Boone Lewis Living the Vision award to Lehigh Valley Health Network for work to improve the community’s health through actions that go beyond traditional hospital care. The health network was recognized for partnerships and sponsorships of organizations and schools in the community that provide preventive care and education.
  • Lehigh Valley Health Network is on target to provide a projected $225 million in charitable care to the Lehigh Valley community in 2010, including close to 150,000 patient visits to community health clinics, more than 15,000 free seasonal flu shots, school health and wellness programs, and community education and prevention through classes, screenings and health care—all of which involve the participation of medical students.
  • A growing financial counselor program at Lehigh Valley Health Network assists patients who are uninsured and underinsured. This includes approval of more than 6,000 applications for a reduced cost-of-care program last year.
The SELECT program includes a dynamic medical science and clinical curriculum to support an excellent foundation in the natural, behavioral and clinical sciences essential to the practice of medicine. In addition, SELECT incorporates unique competencies and objectives emphasizing leadership development, interprofessional collaboration, health care quality and safety, and resource management that are integrated with the medical and clinical science instruction. The SELECT program is designed to fulfill program objectives and respond to the most recent Macy Report recommendations USF faculty are committed to delivering curricula utilizing teaching methodologies that are contemporary, active, engaging and learner-centered. The USF MCOM has been recognized as a leader for incorporating digital technology in teaching.

The focus is on leadership development, values-based and patient-centered health care, and health systems redesign – the very same challenges at the forefront of the current national discussion on healthcare reform.

Students can expect a progressive curriculum, including the following content:

  • Leadership
  • Healthcare quality and safety
  • Information sciences and systems thinking
  • Principles of public health
  • Healthcare organization
  • Finance
  • Health policy
  • Inter-professional, team-based care
  • Simulation
  • E-learning
The SELECT program emphasizes leadership development at USF Morsani College of Medicine.

Students take many of the same courses required in USF’s MD program, but also complete unique coursework, focused programs, and team-building experiences that give them the knowledge, attitudes and skills needed to transform the healthcare landscape.

The leadership development curriculum is composed of three blocks:

  • Basic Science of Leadership (first- and second-year students): Provides an overview of the leadership competency model, introduces individual leadership competencies (i.e. knowledge, skills, abilities, attributes), and uses various tools and program resources to help students attain the competencies needed for effective 21st century leadership.
  • Advanced Science of Leadership (third-year students): Prepares students to work in interprofessional teams and effectively interact with other members of the healthcare delivery system. Through clerkship rotations, students will have opportunities to demonstrate key leadership competencies.
  • Transforming Science of Leadership (fourth-year students): Prepares students to lead transformation in themselves, teams, organizations and communities. Through an integrative practice development project – designed in collaboration with the Continuity Care Team and led by students – each student will apply concepts and skills while gaining practical experience in transforming practice into medical homes.

This emphasis on leadership means our students not only master the scientific foundation of medicine but cultivate “big picture” skills that enable them to work effectively with others. SELECT graduates will practice good medicine while working effectively with patients, families, colleagues, and communities. They will be prepared to take a proactive role in transforming health care.


What is emotional intelligence?

Research into the brain and neuropsychology over the last 10-15 years has yielded important insights into what contributes to our success and happiness, both for individuals and teams. Those insights spawned a revolution in human development based on the findings around emotional intelligence.

Separate from academic capability, which is a predictor of educational achievement, emotional intelligence measures the ability to identify, assess and control emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups. This view of emotions includes a wide array of competencies and skills that drive leadership performance and can help make sense of and navigate the social environment.

Academic research shows that students with higher levels of emotional intelligence have a stronger sense of self and knowledge that they can handle problems or challenges effectively, indicating that emotional intelligence may be a good predictor of success or failure in both academics and careers. In fact, while IQ and cognitive capabilities in highly competitive fields are a must, they are baseline. Research shows that 85-90% of leadership success can be attributed to the competencies associated with emotional intelligence, not IQ.

SELECT has emotional intelligence as a founding principle because at the heart of medicine is an awareness of the needs of the patient, not just an accurate diagnosis and treatment, but their needs as a whole person living in a community as a member of a family. And not just in the examination room, but in the in-home environment and the greater world, creating environments where people can be at their best and make a difference. 

 
For success in SELECT, consider these qualities:
  • A pioneering spirit and the passion and creativity to make the world better
  • The enthusiasm to take a proactive role in transforming medical education and health care
  • Highly motivated, demonstrating academic excellence and the capacity to work effectively as a team leader and a team member
  • An unquenchable thirst for knowledge and lifelong learning
  • An ability to learn by taking measured risks
  • The courage and deeply rooted desire to selflessly serve the medical profession