A Snapshot of Current US Medical School Off-Ramp Programs-a Way to Leave Medical School with Another Degree.

Although most students finish medical school, those who do not frequently have no obvious programmatic alternatives. In recent years, a growing number of medical schools have been developing "off-ramp" programs to help such learners. We surveyed 12 medical schools with off-ramp programs to understand their characteristics and challenges. Differences existed between programs but most were deemed helpful to the students and institutions they served. Advantages included the opportunity to acknowledge the students' hard work, increase career opportunities, and reduce debt. Understanding and promoting such programs will assist students for whom medical school does not represent the optimal career path.

Collaboration across eight research centers: unanticipated benefits and outcomes for project managers.

Managers of transdisciplinary collaborative research lack suitable didactic material to support the implementation of research methodologies and to build ongoing partnerships with community representatives and peers, both between and within multiple academic centers. This article will provide insight on the collaborative efforts of project managers involved in multidisciplinary research and their subsequent development of a tool kit for research project managers and/or directors. Project managers from the 8 Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities across the nation participated in monthly teleconferences to share experiences and offer advice on how to achieve high participation rates and maintain community involvement in collaboration with researchers and community leaders to achieve the common goal of decreasing health inequities. In the process, managers recognized and seized the opportunity to produce a tool kit that was designed for future project managers and directors. Project managers in geographically distinct locations maintained a commitment to work together over 4 years and subsequently built upon an existing communications network to design a tool kit that could be disseminated easily to a diverse audience.

Herpesvirus reactivation and socioeconomic position: a community-based study.

BACKGROUND: Elevated antibodies to latent herpesviruses have been demonstrated to be a reliable marker of diminished cellular immunity and recently have been associated with low socioeconomic position (SEP) in older adults. Extending these observations in a community-based study over a wide age range would provide an important new direction for investigating mechanisms underlying poor health outcomes in individuals with low SEP. METHODS: Anti-herpes simplex virus (HSV)-1 and anti-Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) antibodies were measured in blood samples from 1457 adults aged 25-90. Regression models were then used to determine the relationships between viral reactivation, age, gender, ethnicity and SEP. RESULTS: Individuals were significantly more likely to have higher antiviral antibodies (ie, reactivation) to both EBV and HSV-1 than one virus alone. Individuals in the lowest age group had less reactivation, whereas greater reactivation was observed in women and those with the least education. Compared to white non-Hispanics, Hispanics and black non-Hispanics experienced more viral reactivation. These relationships remained strong after controlling for sociodemographic factors as well as smoking status, body mass index and physical activity. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that herpesvirus reactivation is associated with variables such as age, gender, ethnicity and education, and may play a role in poorer health outcomes in both younger and older adults.