Applying Health Systems Science Competencies to Contribute to the COVID-19 Pandemic Response

In the first quarter of 2020, nearly all U.S. medical schools transitioned to virtual instruction and removed medical students from clinical settings because of the emerging COVID-19 pandemic. While medical school education continued in a different form, questions emerged about the effectiveness of instruction during this hopefully once-in-a-lifetime public health crisis. Many medical students involved themselves in the pandemic response either by creating projects that addressed emerging needs or joining projects created for them by faculty or school leadership. Prior research has indicated that medical student involvement in these projects had educational value, although the nature of that value has not been articulated in the context of existing competency frameworks. The authors reviewed 55 abstracts focused on student-led pandemic-related projects entered into the 2020 American Medical Association (AMA) Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium Health Systems Science Student, Resident, and Fellow Impact Challenge and identified which health systems science (HSS) competencies students most likely acquired through their participation in these projects. The authors conclude that these medical students leveraged these experiences to strengthen key HSS skills, especially in teaming, leadership, and technology, and they advanced their professional identity formation as physicians despite significant disruption to their training. This crisis was an unmatched opportunity for exploring core HSS concepts, and medical students developed meaningful competencies by alternate means. Although medical students in medical school in 2020 and 2021 may have gaps in some areas that need to be addressed, the authors posit that those who engaged in these projects gained strengths that they would not have otherwise acquired.