Anthropology in the Implementation of a New Medical School in South Florida

The roles that anthropologists have in medical schools include program planning, administration, curriculum development, and teaching. The Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine opened its doors in 2007 to train physicians that represented the diversity of the South Florida community and meet the medical needs of this community. Accordingly, the school’s mission is to prepare “Socially accountable, community-based physicians…uniquely qualified to transform the health of patients and communities.” In the opening year, I was hired to help develop a community-engaged curriculum in ethics, social determinants of health and interprofessional teamwork due to my training and experience as an anthropologist. However, translating anthropological knowledge and methods into a medical school setting proved challenging. In this chapter, I describe my role in the development, content, and implementation of an innovative medical curriculum, as well as the training and experiences that led me to this unique opportunity as a founding faculty member for a new medical school. In doing so, I reflect on the main challenges I faced as a medical school faculty member and share some of the strategies I learned in the process to be more effective in my role as a medical teacher.