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Longitudinal Alliance Program 1, 2, 3 & 4

Course spans all four MS years

Director
Lisa Podgurski, MD, MS, FAAHPM
Assistant Professor of Medicine
podgurskil@upmc.edu

Content Lead
Beth Oczypok, MD, PhD
Department of Medicine
eoczypok@pitt.edu

Course Description

The Longitudinal Alliance Program (LAP) involves students building individual relationships with patients living with chronic illnesses over a period of years. Students get to know their LAP patients in clinical and non-clinical settings to hear about patient perspectives on health and health care and see how health conditions evolve over time. Students debrief their LAP interactions during small group meetings with a Faculty Facilitator. The program also involves hearing from non-physician health care professionals to deepen our knowledge of interprofessional roles in patient care.

Course Objectives

Foundations-Phase LAP:

  1. Describe how their patient has experienced their own care, including the physician behaviors that they find most and least helpful.
  2. Describe the way biological, psychological, and social factors interact to influence their patient's experience of illness.
  3. Demonstrate the ability to reflect on longitudinal interactions with a patient.
  4. Relate at least 1 aspect of their patient’s health condition to content covered in the pre-clerkship medical coursework.
  5. Describe the role of at least 2 different types of non-physician health care professionals in a patient’s health care team.
  6. Identify a framework for negotiating patient-physician professional boundaries with intention.

Clerkships-Phase LAP:

  1. Describe the role 3 physicians from different specialties play (or could play) in their longitudinal patient’s care
  2. Compare and contrast a time-limited (i.e. single illness-episode) patient relationship with a longitudinal one

Bridges-Phase LAP:

  1. Explain how the LAP program will influence their clinical reasoning and practice going forward.
  2. Demonstrate the ability to reflect on their interactions with a patient and bring it to a conclusion with gratitude.

Educational Methods​

  • Small group workshops
  • Listening and providing feedback to peers

Assessment

Assessment for this course is based on patient encounters, fulfilment of patient logs, completion of assignments, participation, and a reflection paper, as specified in the syllabus for each semester individually.