The Rowan Integrated Special Needs (RISN) Center at Rowan School of Osteopathic Medicine proposes to train 90 residents and 1,440 medical students over five years using a new curriculum focused on the care of individuals with physical disabilities and intellectual and developmental disabilities that includes didactic training, clinical rotations, and community service learning. The Rowan Integrated Special Needs (RISN) Center at Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine (RowanSOM) is South Jersey's first primary care practice dedicated to serving the needs of individuals with autism, brain injury, Down syndrome, intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, and other complex conditions originating in childhood. The project will use RISN as a training site to increase the number of residents and medical students trained to provide culturally competent and linguistically appropriate care and services to individuals with physical disabilities and/or IDD. The geographic catchment area will be four counties in New Jersey, including Camden, Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem, with over 134,000 individuals living with IDD. The population of focus will be osteopathic medical students at RowanSOM, primary care residents at Inspira Health (located in rural Cumberland County), and osteopathic physicians on the faculty of RowanSOM and other medical schools. The goal of the training is to increase access to quality primary care services for individuals with physical disabilities and/or IDD. Objectives include 1) Increase the number of osteopathic medical students, residents, and faculty that are trained to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate care to individuals with physical disabilities and IDD, 2) Develop and implement a culturally competent didactic and clinical training curriculum for the students, faculty, and preceptors, and 3) Provide opportunities for clinical training where medical students and medical residents will have direct
contact with people with physical and intellectual and developmental disabilities in rural and underserved communities. Innovations include providing training in the RISN Center, which provides integrated primary care and behavioral services using a medical home model for people with physical disabilities and IDD; development of core competencies for osteopathic medical students and residents in the care of people with physical disabilities and IDD; interfacing with the New Jersey AHEC program and community service learning curriculum to provide experiential training in medically underserved communities, integrating social determinants of health into clinical and experiential training, and other activities. A process and outcome evaluation for the project is planned along with a longitudinal study of medical students and residents who participated in the training practicing in rural and medically underserved areas one year after graduation.