neomed-csu partnership for urban health: model for the future

n e ome d . e d u

NEOMED and CSU are partnering to develop future primary

care physicians to provide care in underserved communities

Model for the Future

NEOMED-CSU

Partnership for Urban Health

Supplement to Great Lakes Publishing

[ A Mission for Health: Creating a Pathway for More Care ]

Peek Inside the New Building

Photos by RPM Images

vision and collaboration Two words that make innovation possible.

Congratulations to Cleveland State University and Northeast Ohio Medical University on the opening of the

Center for Innovation in Medical Professions. We are honored to have served as

the Construction Manager with such an outstanding team.

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For more than 40 years, Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) has delivered on its promise to inspire, educate and train physicians and other health professionals to serve the community and improve access to health care.

As the only regional, four-year public medical institu-tion in the state, NEOMED seeks to provide an innovative health care workforce for the region, says its president, Jay Gershen, D.D.S, Ph.D.

“We also have a mission to move science forward and find solu-tions using medical research to improve the quality of life and health of Ohioans,” Dr. Gershen says. “Another mission is to engage with all aspects of the community in a positive way — that includes the busi-ness community, the health community, the civic community in North-east Ohio — to bring all programs and expertise to the region for the betterment of health care and to promote economic development.”

While academic health centers throughout the country have at-tracted primary care physicians to practice in middle-class neighbor-hoods and in higher socioeconomic locations, they’ve been unsuc-cessful at incentivizing medical graduates to work in underserved urban and rural communities.

What makes that imbalance even more troubling are national pro-jections that predict a shortage of about 40,000 primary care physi-cians across the next couple of decades, and a total shortage of about 100,000 physicians in all disciplines.

Factor in the lack of diversity and underrepresented minorities in medical school, and it’s a perfect storm of alarming realities that led NEOMED and Cleveland State University to create a strategic collaboration: the NEOMED-CSU Partnership for Urban Health. The partnership, first developed in 2010, recruits and trains medical students who come from or mirror the socio-economic and cultural characteristics of these communities. These aspiring primary care physicians are dedicated to eliminating health disparities and im-proving the health of the urban neighborhoods.

“There is a critical shortage of primary care physicians in the United States and, while many universities are trying to recalibrate to train more primary care physicians, this medical school is fo-

cused completely on training primary care physicians,” says CSU President Ronald M. Berkman, Ph.D. “To have individuals who are well-trained, who have developed and worked clinically in an urban environment, have sensitivity toward the issue of health disparities and look like the patients they’re treating, we’re going provide to Cleveland an exceptionally different, new generation of physicians and health care providers.”

The multi-faceted partnership leverages scholarship and educa-tion for service dollars to create a pipeline of students coming di-rectly from underserved areas of Greater Cleveland. In some cases, they are identified by key community members helping to encour-age talented youngsters to consider medicine as a career.

“For example, we have more than 70 black pastors who are help-ing at the church level in local churches to try to identify students who might be interested in medical school,” Gershen says.

An accomplished, 14-member Community Advisory Board — co-chaired by Dr. Edgar B. Jackson Jr., executive in residence at CSU, and the Honorable Louis Stokes, J.D. (recently deceased) — has helped inform best practices and build the curriculum for the Urban Health Track program.

Dr. Louis Sullivan, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the chairman and chief executive officer of the Sullivan Alliance to Transform the Health Professions, says he’s extremely impressed and encouraged by the partner-ship. He calls it “a very creative merger between two institutions to address a very significant societal issue” of having adequate health professionals to serve all people, including those in urban and rural areas.

“A program like this in Cleveland will serve a number of purposes. First of all, getting more health professionals where they’re needed. But secondly, a different kind of health professional who really has greater credibility, greater communication skills with the community — greater understanding of the community,” he says. “If it does have the success that we anticipate, I’m sure it will be adopted in other urban areas around the country (that) are in dire need of (better) access to health and improved health behavior.”

Northeast Ohio Medical University and Cleveland State University have partnered to train more future primary care physicians who will be dedicated to underserved areas.

BY CHRISSY KADLECK

A Mission for Health

NEOMED4 n e ome d . e d u

No one institution can cure all the chronic ills that exist in a diverse metropolitan city. But an engaged com-munity of supporters, funders and educators can make a powerful impact by leveraging a collective, focused vision with high-level leadership and unpar-

alleled resources.Enter the NEOMED-CSU Partnership for Urban Health, a strate-

gic collaboration between two venerable public institutions to use their academic strengths to train and recruit primary care physi-cians from urban areas in the region and around Ohio. These neighborhood-based physicians will be the white coats on the ground dedicated to improving access and eliminating health disparities by develop-ing credibility, continuity of care and com-pliance among residents.

The partnership, which was formed in 2010 and became operational in 2011 thanks in part to generous funding from the Cleveland Foundation and others, offers two pathways for students. At the under-graduate level, CSU students are admitted to the joint program at CSU and promoted to NEOMED upon satisfactory completion of Bacc-MD promotion requirements. The second entry point is a six-year Post Bacc-MD option for students with college degrees in other areas. Each pathway introduces students to urban health issues and the socio-logical aspects of urban studies.

Currently, there are 105 students engaged in the six-year pro-gram — 67 in the CSU phase and 38 students in the NEOMED phase. Of this cohort, 19 percent reflect underrepresented minori-ties as compared to a student population of 5 percent when the partnership began. In addition, the partnership has achieved an 85 percent persistence/retention rate for all students and 83 percent

persistence/retention rate for students from underrepresented mi-nority groups. The goal is to graduate 175 medical students in the next five years.

Each one of those 175 physicians added to the community can make a dramatic difference and greatly impact the personal health of the individual and the economic health of the area.

“Each physician has an economic impact of $1 million. Ten new physicians in an urban community, would likely impact the community by about $10 million, says Dr. Edgar B. Jackson Jr.,

CSU’s executive in residence and co-chair of the partnership’s Community Ad-visory Board. “It creates an environment where businesses are more likely to lo-cate and where people are more likely to want to live.”

Addressing the staggering health dis-parities found in urban locations has been the life work of Dr. Jackson, who also is the in-house expert on urban health at CSU’s College of Science and Health Profes-sions.

“Individuals who are born and reside in Lyndhurst will live 25 years longer than those born in Hough. These communities are about 10 miles apart, and there’s a 25-year gap in life expectancy,” he says, add-

ing that in virtually every health indicator minorities living in urban areas have a death rate that’s anywhere from one to 10 times higher than the majority of the population.

“If you have two populations of patients — one black and one white and they are equally insured — the care for the black popula-tion is less than the care of the white population,” he says citing a report from the Institute of Medicine. “Race has something to do with the quality of care received. For us physicians who all think we don’t discriminate, that’s a bitter pill for us to swallow, but it’s true.”

The NEOMED-CSU Partnership for Urban Health is a national model for an evolving system of health care.

A New Vision for CareBY CHRISSY KADLECK

(Left to Right): Edgar B. Jack-son Jr., Louis Stokes, Ronald M. Berkman, Jay A. Gershen, Louis Sullivan, Daisy L. Alford-Smith (NEOMED Board of Trust-ees) and Mayor Frank Jackson have all been integral to the NEOMED-CSU Partnership for Urban Health.

“It’s the first of its kind in the country and likely to become a national model if successful.”

— Dr. Louis Sullivan, former Secretary of the

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

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Attracting New StudentsAttracting underrepresented minorities to pursue primary-care

specialties such as family medicine, general internal medicine, general pediatrics and geriatrics is a critical component of the partnership. This new generation of doctors will mirror the racial makeup of that particular community, allowing them to better relate to their patients.

“The number of minority students in American medical schools have either stayed stagnant or declined over the last decade,” says CSU President Ronald M. Berkman, adding that one-third of the students in the partnership’s incoming class of 35 are underrepre-sented minorities.

That diversity has been lacking among health professionals in all fields, including nursing and most of the technical fields in health care. That’s especially troubling as research shows that patients intentionally seek out health care providers who are similar to them-selves, says NEOMED President Jay A. Gershen, D.D.S., Ph.D.

“Right now, for example, the (national) population is about one-third Latino, Hispanic, African-American, and Native American and maybe less than 10 percent of the people who graduate from medical school are from those populations,” Dr. Gershen says. Part of the problem is that students from underserved communi-ties don’t apply to medical schools. Even those talented in math and science haven’t previously considered a career in medicine for lack of resources, encouragement and visible pathway of achieving such a goal.

The partnership aims to change that by offering scholarships and financial incentives such as Education for Service. Community groups such as churches and public schools also work to identify gifted students to create a pipeline into the program.

“Our goal is to basically provide opportunities for urban kids, who have the talent, to be identified early on, given the greatest opportunity to excel, educationally, be attracted to the partnership to study and to stay in the community when they graduate,” Dr. Jackson says.

“It’s the first of its kind in the country and likely to become a na-tional model if successful,” says Dr. Louis Sullivan, former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He is also

the chairman and chief executive officer of the Sullivan Alliance to Transform the Health Professions.

Having racially and ethnically diverse health professionals be-comes even more important in terms of credibility, understanding the community, the culture, the history and belief systems in urban areas, adds Sullivan. “The ability to offer skilled, knowledgeable medical care in a way that the patient feels comfortable, feels re-spected and feels that they are an active part of the care process is very important,” Dr. Sullivan says. “That’s when what we call the so-cial side or the psychological side of the interaction becomes impor-tant. You need both science and social and psychological aspects to

The Cleveland Foundation is pleased to have supported the NEOMED-CSU Part-nership for Urban Health with three grants totaling more than $7 million. This inno-vative partnership is designed to increase the number of primary care practitioners who will work in urban centers, such as Cleveland. It also represents a true collab-orative approach among two educational institutions and many other local institu-tions. A community can have the most beautiful, updated hospitals and health centers, but if it doesn’t have the trained and committed staff, these facilities go to waste. Unfortunately, as a country we are failing to produce enough primary care providers at a time when many health care workers are approaching retirement age. We desperately need practitioners who

understand the complex interplay of per-sonal, behavioral and environmental fac-tors that play out in urban health and lead to major health disparities. In Cleveland, across relatively small distances of a few miles, one can find dramatically different outcomes on many health measures, from infant mortality, to rates of cancer and other chronic diseases, to overall life ex-pectancy. These wide disparities are un-acceptable to the Cleveland Foundation. Our community needs to understand them and to have the health care workforce to address them. The foundation believes the NEOMED-CSU partnership plays a critical role in meeting this need.

— Robert Eckardt, Dr. PH, executive vice president

Supporting the Partnership


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have the optimal outcome between the health professional and the individual being served.”

Patients will increasingly have to take a great role in maintaining their own health and taking personal responsibility for things within their control such as screenings, nutrition and exercise.

“I believe that we are going to require greater emphasis on pre-vention of disease and promotion of health, keeping people well and out of the hospitals and out of the health system,” Dr. Sullivan says. “That’s going to require improved health literacy of our popu-lation and a greater participation of the patient in maintaining their own health.”

Studies also have shown that blacks and Latino physicians are three to five times more likely to establish their practices “in the ghetto or in the barrio where their services are needed,” Dr. Jackson says.

“Their practices are different from the typical practice of a white physician in that the Latino or black physicians have a higher per-centage of patients who are Medicaid recipients or who have no insurance whatsoever,” Dr. Jackson says. “So that means that the black and Latino physicians are serving a lot of people who would otherwise not be served if they were not there.”

Creating AccessIncreasing the cultural similarity of health care providers directly

correlates with improved access. “People who are more comfortable going into the medical setting are more likely to benefit from preven-tive services for cancer, hypertension and other diseases that are treatable and preventable,” Dr. Jackson says.

It also improves patient compliance and continuity of care — two of the major issues facing urban health professionals. “Often times the patient doesn’t comply with the treatment regimen that is outlined,” Dr. Sullivan says. “We also have people who use the emergency room as a site of primary care, and that is not only the most expensive site to try and get care, that is the least desirable because of lack of continuity of care.”

Dr. Jackson called the Partnership for Urban Health the “most com-prehensive, direct approach I have seen.” In fact, Jackson has focused on increasing the number of minority health care professionals since his career started in 1970. He says these professionals can help bridge the health care disparity gap.

“Certainly in my experience of more than 40 years, this is the best opportunity I feel I have had to have an impact and the first time I’ve

been able to work on a program that has the greatest likelihood of suc-cess,” he says. “We’re focusing on kids who come from the community, providing an opportunity for the talented kids in that community who want to serve, to acquire the skills to serve. And we’re making it attrac-tive for them to remain in their community, both to train and to work.”

The Greater Cleveland community — and the region — can only benefit from this kind of pipeline of primary care physicians who are sensitive and dedicated to the practice of medicine in inner-city loca-tions, Berkman says.

Students admitted to the NEOMED-CSU M.D. programs will have seminars and courses in urban health and opportunities to complete many of their neighborhood-based experiences at various hospital and ambulatory care sites located in the Cleveland metropolitan area. The program also includes a four-year pairing with Federally Qualified Health Centers and health care system providers based in a medically underserved Cleveland neighborhood.

“That’s one of the reasons that we do the neighborhood program, which puts our students for much of their clinical training out into neigh-borhoods, out into ambulatory care settings rather than the traditional setting,” says Berkman. “The best place to deliver health care if you can is as close to the patient as you possibly can get. The neighborhood programs teaches students how to deliver medical care in a community context as opposed to in a hospital context.”

NEOMED-CSU Partnership for Urban Health celebrates with the ribbon cutting for the

Center for Innovation in Medical Professions.


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Amid the chaos in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake expressed her concern over the destruction of a CVS store. She explained that the pharmacy was the only new store in the area where residents could

fill prescriptions.A 2012 research article titled “Medication deserts: Survey of

neighborhood disparities in availability of prescription medica-tions” and published online by the International Journal of Health Geographics stated among its results that “pharmacies in poor communities had significantly higher odds of medications being out of stock.”

This may surprise some, as many middle- and upper-income com-munities seem to have a pharmacy for every Starbucks location.

But the sparse presence of chain-store pharmacies is quite com-mon in poor communities across the country with the majority of such high poverty areas being served by independent pharmacies.

While some would say, “why does it matter? Aren’t all pharma-cies the same?” Consider this: Chain pharmacies typically have larger facilities, more inventory and a better variety of medica-tions. They also may provide preventive and wellness manage-ment services that aren’t available at many independents – all of which could help patients as they manage chronic conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and asthma.

With seven of 10 deaths attributable to chronic disease, resources and access could be the difference between life and death. Nationally, communities with heavy African-American and Hispanic popula-tions are disproportionately affected by chronic disease, and are twice as likely to have a certain condition as their white counterparts.

As most chronic conditions are treated first with medications, issues such as ac-cess to pharmacies and availability of the most commonly prescribed medications worsen a national condi-tion in which medication non-adherence is prevalent.

While reform and the ongoing changes in the health care sector may help with the former, more progress is needed with the latter.

People trust health professionals who understand them

and their communities.One out of every two individuals miss a dose of their medi-

cation, one in three forget to take their medication, one in four do not get their medications refilled, and one in four never get their prescriptions filled…not even once.

Chronic conditions and medication non-adherence lead to hospitalizations. With there already being a shortage of primary care physicians in underserved areas, who will provide care for these chronically ill patients?

Another type of doctor – a pharmacist, or Pharm.D – is a real solution to not only assist in team-based care but help those in underserved communities deal with their abundance of chronic conditions.

Since medication adherence plays a huge role in the effective treatment of chronic conditions, there needs to be a larger presence of people who reflect a community

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“Today, approximately 50 percent of the pharmacy workforce has been educated within this new curricular model.”

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in a position to serve them. Trust goes a long way when it comes to serving patients and their subsequent adherence. A 2014 Gal-lup poll found that health professionals such as nurses, doctors and pharmacists have higher honesty and ethical standards than those in most other professions. Nurses were ranked number one, with doctors and pharmacists tied for second.

The trust factor combined with interprofessional training is a great place to start.

Dr. Charles Taylor, dean of pharmacy and vice president of aca-demic affairs at NEOMED, has seen the profession of pharmacy quietly transform over the last 20 years. “One important element of this transformation was the national conversion to an entry-level Doctor of Pharmacy degree and the emergence of post-graduate pharmacy residency education as an important aspect to delivering direct patient care,” he says.

But more students from the underserved communities must apply to these programs.

According to the latest U.S. Census figures, underrepresented minorities such as African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Ameri-cans account for 35 percent of the population, but only 8.4 percent of registered pharmacists.

Although many may have an interest in becoming a doctor, they are usually thinking “medical doctor” (M.D.). Much of their interest, or lack thereof, has to do with the image of a pharmacist dispensing medication or providing customer service at counters in a retail drug

store. While some pharmacies do provide such services, students should know that pharmacists are doctors, too, and their image is changing.

“Today, approximately 50 percent of the pharmacy workforce has been educated within this new curricular model,” Taylor adds. “In-terprofessional education (IPE) has been further defining and pre-paring pharmacists and other health care professionals in a more integrated, collaborative model of delivering patient-centered and population-based care.”

When students see pharmacists differently, they want to be one of them. While the understanding and implementation of pharmacist-based services is slowly being recognized, today’s Pharm.Ds can co-ordinate medications during transitions from hospitals to home care and manage medication. They provide disease education, prevention and wellness services, and educate patients. Increasingly, pharma-cists also work with physicians to initiate and modify medications, guided by collaborative agreements, which increases valuable time for primary care physicians to schedule more patient visits.

Interprofessional training of students from underserved communities is the elixir.

Students can apply to NEOMED’s program after completing 72 semester hours of pre-pharmacy classes at Cleveland State Univer-sity. The pre-professional background will facilitate the development of professional practitioners capable of understanding their role as health care providers in a culturally diverse society. An undergradu-

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ate degree is not needed. The pre-professional pharmacy require-ments will provide students with all the coursework necessary for successful entrance into NEOMED’s College of Pharmacy four-year professional program, which culminates with the awarding of the doctor of pharmacy degree (Pharm D).

NEOMED’s Education for Service scholarships might be avail-able as well. Students who qualify for the competitive Education for Service scholarships and commit to serve in medically underserved Cleveland neighborhoods may receive funding to attend the medical university.

And, if that isn’t enough incentive, once students go into practice, the median salary for a pharmacist is nearly $120,000.

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DEFINING THE SKYLINE®

Center for Innovation in Medical Professions at CSU


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A dedicated and accomplished paramedic with the Cleveland Emergency Medical Service for 10 years, Sibley Strader fostered a deep love and passion for caring for city residents in need.

She also recognized a disturbing reality among the chronically ill patients she treated via 911 calls: They were far sicker than they needed to be. The contributing reasons formed a complex web of issues that ranged from lack of access to not fully under-standing how to manage their medical condition to relying on the emergency room as the primary care source when symptoms were at their most debilitating and dangerous.

“The vulnerable populations — the poor, the minority, immigrants and refugees — in urban Cleveland communities suffer dispropor-tionately from an extensive range of illnesses, and they do not seek help for their pre-existing conditions,” says Strader, who was award-ed the Cuyahoga County Commission Emergency Service Award and the Ohio House of Representative Emergency Service Award by Silver & Gold for her competence, dedication, perseverance and decisive leadership.

During that time Sibley, 39, now a second-year medical student in the inaugural class of the NEOMED-CSU Partnership for Urban Health, advanced her skills in patient care, communication and critical thinking. Above all, her service gave her a deeper under-standing of the overwhelming challenges urban patients face in accessing care.

“A lot of my patients face obstacles to care that have led them to delay proper treatment until they developed serious illnesses and secondary conditions,” she says. “Their minor health problems be-come life-threatening.”

When Northeast Ohio Medical University and Cleveland State University announced their decision to establish a partnership to create an M.D. track emphasizing primary care in urban health, Strader says, she eagerly bid for a spot in the competitive program. She was thrilled to earn a seat in the inaugural post-baccalaureate class in the partnership in 2013.

Representing the Community The NEOMED-CSU Partnership for Urban Health recruits and

trains medical students who reflect the socio-economic background and cultural makeup of the Cleveland area. The goal is to deliver primary care physicians dedicated to eliminating health disparities and improving the level of health care, quality of life and economic health of those residing in the neighborhoods throughout the city.

The community has responded with incredible support of the part-nership. In June, the Cleveland Foundation awarded a $5.5 million grant cementing the partnership’s vision to design and implement a model to develop the urban primary care workforce. This fall, part-nership students will attend classes in the new Center for Innovation in Medical Professions, a state-of-the-art, $44 million building in the heart of CSU’s campus.

Some 105 students are engaged in the six-year program taught on both CSU and NEOMED campuses. Of this fall’s incoming class of 35 students, 12 are underrepresented minorities and 77 percent are Ohio residents.

Those figures represent huge diversity gains to address an alarming shortage of primary care doctors who historically have not wanted to practice in urban areas, says NEOMED President Jay A. Gershen, D.D.S., Ph.D.

“With this partnership, we have two universities coming together here — Cleveland State and NEOMED — using their resources in a collective way, doing something that neither university can do alone,” he says “The taxpayers (are) getting more benefit for their tax dollar and we’re not duplicating programs. We’re bringing our programs together in a facility that Cleveland State has built. We are going to take NEOMED’s physician students, the pharmacy students, graduate students, public health students and put them together with Cleveland State’s nursing students, allied health pro-fessional and social work students.”

Students benefit from seminars on urban health at CSU, which are led by health care professionals from Cleveland, including nurses, physicians, social workers and pharmacists. The partner-

The NEOMED-CSU Partnership for Urban Health recruits and trains medical students who reflect Cleveland’s urban communities.

BY CHRISSY KADLECK

The Student Experience


ship has strong focuses on interprofessional learning and com-munity health care.

Traditionally students in the health professions are educated in silos. Creating an inspiring community building where students learn together will facilitate the transformation of health care into team-based practice.

Drawing More Students The partnership is working to diversify the workforce by strengthen-

ing the pipeline of students who will strive to participate in the urban health program.

“We have programs from high school to CSU to NEOMED,” Ger-shen says. “What we want to do is have the community attract the students, and encourage them to stay involved in the program. Once the students graduate, we also want the community to be there for the students at the other end when they graduate to help them get settled in the community and be successful.”

But medical school is expensive. To eliminate that roadblock, Ger-shen points to NEOMED’s Education for Service scholarship program and specifically its partnership with Medical Mutual of Ohio, the oldest and largest health insurance company based in the state.

“The Medical Mutual Pharmacy Scholars program is a $1 million philanthropic commitment from them to fund 14 four-year scholar-ships for NEOMED doctor of pharmacy students,” says Gershen. “Each scholarship will provide $18,000 toward annual tuition and fees (approximately 70 percent of total), and students in good standing will be eligible to receive the scholarship for all four years ($72,000) of their pharmacy education.”

In return for this substantial financial support, scholarship recipi-ents will be required to work one year for every year of scholarship


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in an underserved rural or urban community in regions covered by Medical Mutual.

“It’s not often that two organizations align so well on community health initiatives,” notes Gershen. “But this is even better, as we also share a desire for innovative workforce development solutions that truly maximizes the impact. In addition to developing health profes-sionals from the community, we’re also deploying them to return and provide health care for those communities.”

Even though Cleveland has two world-class hospital systems — Cleveland Clinic and University Hospital — and a committed safety-net hospital in MetroHealth Medical Center, many resi-dents do not have a regular source of medical care, says Strader, who says she admires the true interdisciplinary partnership be-tween NEOMED and CSU.

“I want to become a primary care physician to help my com-munity overcome some of the barriers to health care so that my patients do not have to suffer from extended and severe sickness and the loss of productivity and functional ability,” says Strader, who earned a full scholarship through the Department of Health and Human Services National Health Service Corps (NHSC). This exclusive scholarship is awarded to physicians in training who are dedicated to primary care and to serve the underserved.

“Since I have worked and lived in the city for over a decade, practicing medicine in the neighborhoods means I am benefiting my neighbor, coworker, friends and their children,” says Strader, who credits her husband, Jason, and family for their incredible support and encouragement for her later-in-life journey through medical school. “My NEOMED curriculum will allow me to stay connected and even strengthen my ties with my community.”

A diverse set of students will study to be primary care physicians who will work in underserved communities, helping to fill a health care void in these areas.

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Navigating a crooked and unconventional path that twisted through two careers before the age of 30, Dr. Sonja Harris-Haywood was destined to become a physician.

It had been a dream that took root as a young child growing up in New York City listening to heartbreaking stories of how her aunt, whom she resembled, had been denied access to a white-only hospital in South Carolina and essentially was sent home to die at 16.

“Hearing those stories from my grandmother and my mother, it just seemed very unfair to me. I always felt that, if I had an op-portunity to change something, I wanted to change that,” says Har-ris-Haywood, director of the NEOMED-CSU Partnership for Urban Health and associate vice provost for health affairs at CSU.

A sensitive and observant child, she recognized how many of her family members used the emergency room as their primary source of care and rarely went to the doctor or dentist. When they did seek out physicians, they searched for black doctors, but they were near-ly impossible to find.

Gifted in the sciences, she struggled with the liberal arts and later was diagnosed with dyslexia. By that time, she had let her dream die.

She earned a degree in chemistry from Seton Hall University and went to work as a bench chemist, designing antibiotics and cancer drugs. After a couple of years, she went back to school at

New York University (NYU) to earn a master’s degree in science education. She eventually became a pre-med counselor at NYU, and it was during that time that she interacted with students who were similar to her — underserved and coming from communities where they needed a lot of educational support.

“I started to figure out how to help them get into medical school. I studied the MCAT and learned how to teach the topics for the MCAT,” she says. Through that process, she rekindled her own desire to be a physician. “While I was paving their path, I was actually paving my own.”

Once she started pursuing her medical degree at New Jersey Med-ical School, “life took off from there,” she says. She switched from wanting to become an anesthesiologist because of her penchant for chemistry to her roots of wanting to be a primary care physician.

Her impressive career melded her love of teaching, clinical care and research. A decade ago, she was recruited to Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Case Medi-cal Center in Cleveland to research cancer along with investigat-ing health disparities and cultural competency. During her time at Case, she was continually mentoring students, as many as four to five at a time.

“It was my own personal post-bac program,” she says. “I al-ways felt myself gravitating toward the students who were strug-gling. I remember when there was nobody there to help me, and I always vowed that, if I got through the process, I’d always be available to help somebody else navigate it.”

By 2013, Harris-Haywood was ready for a new challenge, and she found the perfect fit with the Partnership for Urban Health. She became the Partnership’s first director on July 1, 2013.

“They were looking for someone who could relate to the stu-dents, and understood what it was like to be under represented in medicine, who understood that the journey to medicine might not be very straight — that was me,” she says. “They wanted someone who could help build a program to get students who are under represented in medicine into medical school and to entice them in primary care, which is my love. And they wanted someone to teach urban medicine, which is all I’ve ever known. It is a perfect fit.”

Dr. Sonja Harris-Haywood followed an inspirational path to become the director of the NEOMED-CSU Partnership for Urban Health

Learning Disability

BY CHRISSY KADLECK


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Carl Allamby has spent most of his life as a healer. Each day, he would listen carefully as people de-scribed their symptoms. Upon diagnosing a problem, he would then work to treat it. If the underlying issue was out of his area of expertise, he would work with a

specialist to ensure proper treatment was received. For 25 years, Allamby ran his own business, Advanced Auto

Care, which he started at only 19 years old. After a quarter-century of caring for cars, he’s now preparing for a second career where he will instead treat people.

Allamby recently began his first year at NEOMED’s College of Medicine as part of the University’s urban primary care track in partnership with Cleveland State University.

“I really appreciate how the partnership is based in urban pri-mary care, something I have been passionate about for a long time,” says Allamby. “My education is helping me get to a place where I can touch the lives of others in my community. I will help people who need it the most, which is a huge motivating factor as I continue to work toward my goals.”

How Allamby ended up as part of the partnership was anything but typical. Although he developed a passion for the medical sci-ences in high school, he was forced to forgo college after graduat-ing from high school and instead took a job at an auto parts store to support his newborn son. Shortly afterward, he managed to start his automotive repair business after building a client-base with the customers he met during his day job. While he worked to get his business off the ground, Allamby would work day shifts at the auto parts store, and then work at his repair shop late into the evening.

Before too long, life got in the way of Allamby’s plans for con-tinuing his education. He married and became a stepfather to four children, and then his wife gave birth to twins. With such a large family to support, Allamby focused on building his business and raising his children.

“My life had been all about work,” Allamby says. “I was just try-ing to make some money so I could help provide new opportunities for my kids. I take great pride in being a father and everything that comes with it, but I always believed I was capable of doing some-thing that would give back to humanity on a greater scale.”

Eventually, Allamby was able to return to school, earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 2010. However, a general education course called “Birth through Aging,” which he had avoided until his final semester, became the catalyst to seek a career in medicine. The mandatory science course that Allamby had put off for so long awakened something inside of him.

“The content was so engaging, it brought me back to my young-

er days when I would become completely engrossed with every-thing we covered in science class,” Allamby says. “It reignited my desire to be part of the medical field.”

At first he was apprehensive about returning to school, especial-ly for something as ambitious as a degree in medicine. But a well-timed newspaper article sent to him by his mother-in-law about a student named Bill Downing helped eliminate his fears. Downing was already enrolled in the Urban Primary Care program, and he had a background that closely mirrored Allamby’s.

Allamby will spend the next four years at NEOMED’s campus in Rootstown after completing the first two years of the program at CSU with a perfect 4.0 GPA. Allamby is interested in going into the primary care field, either in internal or emergency medicine. Dur-ing his first two years in the partnership, Allamby received valuable hands-on experience by shadowing NEOMED alumna Stephanie L. Hunter, M.D., the assistant residency director of emergency medicine at University Hospitals Case Medical Center.

“We need to do something as a society to make sure people have a fair chance at education and social equity,” Allamby says. “I’m extremely proud to be part of the partnership, which is doing just that for people right here in Cleveland.”

Carl Allamby proves it’s never too late to follow your dreams

Igniting a New Path

BY JARED F. SLANINA

After running an auto business for 25 years, Carl Allamby decided to go back to school to become a doctor.


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The new Center for Innovation in Medical Professions (CIMP) is a shiny, urban construction that houses inter-disciplinary collaboration and pioneering, high-impact learning.

Located in the heart of the Cleveland State Univer-sity campus on Euclid Avenue between East 21st and East 22nd streets, CIMP is more than 100,000 square feet that’s outfit-ted with the latest technology. The airy health hub will be home to as many as 700 faculty and students in nursing, medicine, pharmacy, physical therapy, occupational therapy and physician assistants.

“It’s a magnificent space that was designed to facilitate stu-dents first with state-of-the-art teaching technologies, state-of-

The new Center for Innovation in Medical Professions will provide students with state-of-the-art learning technology.

Built for Care

BY CHRISSY KADLECK

440-748-7483 • www.sitetechexcavating.com

Sitetech Inc.35700 East Royalton Rd.

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Sitetech encountered many challenges on this project while installing electrical, communication and chilled water lines. Extensive care was used while working around existing utilities, maintaining local and pedestrian access, and completing the work on a tight schedule while keeping safety our top priority.

It was a pleasure working for the CSU construction team.

Forest City Erectors, Inc. (FBE, SBE & AISC Advanced Certified Steel Erector)

furnished and installed the following scope of work on the CSU project:

• Structural Steel Framing • Stairs, Ornamental & Glass Railings

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ErEctors of construction MatErials • cranE sErvicE and riggingBlast furnacE rEpairs • towEr cranE and Hoist ErEction


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the-art electronic medical record technology and state-of-the-art simulation technology,” says CSU President Ronald M. Berkman. “Having a physical home for the NEOMED-CSU Partnership for Urban Health was an important imprint of the building,” he says. It better announces the institution’s dedication to health sciences and its commitment to address the health disparities that exist in Greater Cleveland, he explains.

“There was a large focus (to) create a space that is the most usable and the most accessible to students,” Berkman says. “Ev-erything we’ve done in the interior of the building is designed to provide an environment in which students will collaborate. There

are lots of study areas. There are lots of discussion areas. There are lots of places for students to interact.”

For example, a student can use technology to go through the steps of a physical examination of a patient with pneumonia in one of the 15 rooms designed to simulate patient interaction. The $44 million space also boasts two long-distance learning rooms that can collectively host more than 130 students, six learning labs, speech and hearing community clinics and an expansive central atrium for informal gatherings and events.

“It’s absolutely beautiful, artistic, and you can see the fresh, contemporary design, but I’d say the strength of the building is the common spaces,” says Dr. Sonja Harris-Haywood, director of the NEOMED-CSU Partnership for Urban Health.

Flooded with natural light and engaging artwork, CIMP is invit-ing and inspiring — the perfect place to sit and study or work with other aspiring health care professionals.

“It encourages the interpersonal education and the advance-ment and success of the students who are going to be going through these multiple programs,” Dr. Harris-Haywood says. She expects students will be in awe of the new building. “This may be the first time that they will see what a real health professions training facility can look like,” she says.

Medical education is changing and trading its traditional silo approach for a team mentality. That’s particularly important in ur-ban medicine, where many patients struggle with multiple health issues, Dr. Harris-Haywood says.

“This is the first time all of the health sciences will be in the same location,” Berkman says. “The building is really designed to better replicate the professional environment that they’ll function in when they graduate.”

The Center for Innovation in Medical Professions houses state-of-the-art technology to train future doctors.

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