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Blake Kinsel, DO ’21, didn’t just graduate from 91̽�� last May. He and seven fellow Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine graduates made history, becoming the firsts to complete a one-of-its-kind medical education program that immerses students in a clinical setting—from day one of their training through residency—and in the communities they serve.

In 2018, the Heritage College debuted its Transformative Care Continuum (TCC), an accelerated curriculum developed in partnership with Cleveland Clinic that’s training the family doctors of the future.

“In developing this program, we asked Cleveland Clinic: In a perfect world, what would primary care look like for them a decade from now, and how can we start training those physicians today?” explains Isaac Kirstein, DO, dean of Heritage College, Cleveland.

The result? A curriculum that is transforming medical education and patient care.

“This innovative program transforms medical education by providing hands-on experience with patients and health care delivery teams to train future physicians in a dramatically different way and uniquely prepare them for 21^st-century medicine,” says James Young, MD, executive director of academic affairs at Cleveland Clinic. “Health care systems need more patient-centered solutions that engage social determinants of health and collaborate across traditional silos to improve health outcomes. These students will help us lead the way to healthier communities.”

TCC students are admitted into family medicine residency programs at Cleveland Clinic’s Akron General or Lakewood Family Health Center before they even begin medical school. They spend the next three years completing the Heritage College’s curriculum while working alongside health care teams across the patient care continuum. After graduating medical school—in three years instead of four—those students complete their formal three-year residencies at the same Cleveland Clinic sites.

“It’s not just our faculty, not just the doctors at Cleveland Clinic. It’s the front desk staff, the pharmacists, the nurses, the care coordinators, the social workers. The entire team has become a part of our faculty,” says Leanne Chrisman-Khawam, MD, MEd, assistant professor of social medicine and TCC director.

Working on the front lines of a health care system and directly with patients allows these students to identify areas of improvement in the system and social determinants of health.

“It makes them leaders before they are doctors,” Chrisman-Khawam says. “So much of health care is actually not happening in the four walls of a hospital system or doctor’s office. It’s happening in the community.”

In the third year of the TCC, students complete research, quality improvement or programmatic projects they design in partnership with community organizations and aimed at addressing local health challenges.

For his project, Kinsel partnered with the LGBT Center of Cleveland and Doctors on the Streets, a program that provides health care to homeless individuals.

“After going a few times to participate and see what resources are available to the individuals living in shelters, I noticed that resources for sexual health were severely lacking, particularly with regular STD/HIV screenings when people meet certain criteria to be deemed high risk,” Kinsel explains.

Kinsel worked to expand point-of-care HIV testing and prevention services, reducing the barriers of accessing these health care needs by bringing them directly to the shelters. He received the Excellence in Public Health Award from the U.S. Public Health Service Physician Professional Advisory Committee for his work.

Today, Kinsel is completing the first year of his residency at Cleveland Clinic’s Lakewood Family Health Center.

“Being here for three years prior to the start of residency has been a huge plus,” he says. “There were many patients that I saw as a medical student who are now my patients. A lot of what I learned through the TCC and the experiences the program allowed me to do are what shaped who I am as a resident physician now.”

The TCC has positioned the Heritage College and Cleveland Clinic as leaders in reinventing primary care physician training. The Heritage College is one of 37 medical schools selected as members of the American Medical Association’s Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium.

“From the earliest times, we started publishing our ideas about how we were going to create this innovative pathway,” says Kirstein. “Now, our work is recognized nationally.”

Feature image: Blake Kinsel, DO ’21, was one of eight students who are the firsts to complete the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Transformative Care Continuum. Photo courtesy of Annie O’Neill/Cleveland Clinic.