Scholarly Concentrations

If you’re a current medical student and want to know about the Scholarly Concentrations Program, you’ve come to the right place.

IU School of Medicine is confident that its MD curriculum prepares all future healers to transform health across the state and beyond. Many students come into medical school with varied interests related to medicine. The Scholarly Concentrations program offers medical students the opportunity to pursue their passions through coursework and scholarship alongside the core curriculum throughout medical school yet doesn’t add time or cost to the traditional medical curriculum.

Program Benefits

Concentrations allow students to customize their education, and to engage in experiences that lead to multidisciplinary scholarship, research, and community engagement.
Each concentration offers students the opportunity to work with subject matter experts and access resources at sponsoring campuses and communities. It’s a great way to study, live and work with a community of like-minded students, faculty, staff and local partners.
Through each concentration students receive mentorship, develop skills, and have the opportunity to publish a paper — all that can help them stand out in the residency match and professional opportunities.
Scholarly Concentrations are optional.
Students completing a concentration earn an eight week non-clinical elective credit towards MD graduation requirements. A scholarly concentration designation also appears on the transcript and can be referenced on a CV or resume.

Explore the concentrations

Learn more about the Scholarly Concentrations program and decide if a concentration is right for you.

Explore scholarly concentrations

90%

of program graduates recommend the Scholarly Concentrations program to first-year medical students

94%

of graduating students say the program strengthened their CV and interviews during the residency search

First-hand Experiences

Geneva Baumberger, Scholarly Concentrations in Public Health, Class of 2026

"Participating in this program has reinforced my desire to integrate public health work into my career. This program has helped me to better understand the different ways to accomplish this goal, whether through research, policy advocacy, or by partnering with community-based initiatives. This program has also strengthened my desire to go into primary care, as I hope to become a pediatrician."

Emily Merritt, MD, Pediatrics Resident, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Scholarly Concentration in Medical Education, Class of 2024 graduate

"I entered medical school with an interest in pursuing a career in academic medicine and medical education, and I am leaving with a strengthened passion for education and the goal of becoming a clinician educator. My Scholarly Concentration gave me the chance to fully engage with my interests and truly enriched my time in medical school."

Christopher Blanco, MD, Internal Medicine Resident, Tufts Medical Center, Scholarly Concentration in Quality and Innovation in Health Care, Class of 2023 graduate

"Having the opportunity to work with doctors and other health care professionals who have taken up additional quality improvement roles within their hospital systems has provided me with a better understanding of how I can pursue quality innovation in health care as a medical professional."

Read what students, graduates, mentors and others say about the program

Requirements and Timeline

Concentrations are a longitudinal experience during medical school, not just one summer. Learn about their required or recommended pathways to completion that fit with the medical school curriculum and calendar. Students typically begin their concentration between the first and second years of medical school, or during the first year, and continue into their fourth year. There may be opportunities to begin a concentration during the second year of medical school; however, this can be very difficult.

Scholarly concentrations are typically composed of several topic-specific courses (can be more) and the following requirements:

Fundamentals of Research and Scholarship: an introductory course (online and asynchronous) that provides students with a broad understanding of translational science, research methods, basic processes of writing and submitting a manuscript, and more.

Scholarly project: students gain experience developing and conducting scholarly inquiry appropriate to the concentration. They can come up with their own project or join an existing project. Projects can be individual or done as part of a group. Completion of the project will form the basis of the scholarly concentration product.

Scholarly product: students are required to produce a manuscript that they submit to a peer-reviewed journal. Publication is not required. An abstract does not meet the program’s requirement.

Poster presentation: students present at IU School of Medicine Education Day to share their scholarship with the school community and allow the community to celebrate their accomplishments.

Evaluations: for continuous improvement, students are required to complete end-of-course evaluations and the Scholarly Concentration Program annual survey and end-of-program survey.

Applying to a Scholarly Concentration

Currently enrolled IU School of Medicine MD students can apply to the Scholarly Concentrations Program during the application window, from early December to early January of their first year. Some regional campus concentrations recruit students upon matriculation. Details, including available concentrations, can be found on the application page each year.

Students interested in a concentration that recruits upon matriculation can contact the co-directors.

Applicants to IU School of Medicine are encouraged to preference campuses that have scholarly concentrations in which they’re interested. They'll have a chance to apply to the program after they begin medical school at IU School of Medicine.

Frequently Asked Questions

No. Scholarly concentrations is an optional program that’s available to medical students at IU School of Medicine.

No. Concentrations are completed within the traditional four-year medical curriculum. Students typically begin the summer between their first and second years of medical school or during their first year. After that, the program is longitudinal and occurs alongside your core medical education.

No. There are no additional fees or tuition associated with completing a concentration.

Questions?

Explore the AskMSE page

AskMSE Forum

Coordination with IMPRS or other summer research program

It may be possible to do both a scholarly concentration and the IMPRS Summer Research program or another summer experience during the summer between the first and second years of medical school. However, this requires advanced planning and coordination. Learn more.

Leading to a dual degree

The scholarly concentrations in Public Health and Business of Medicine can lead to a master’s degree in public health and MBA, respectively, as those programs will count scholarly concentration work toward the dual degree. Students in dual degree programs must still fulfill all scholarly concentration requirements to receive IU School of Medicine non-clinical elective credit and the Scholarly Concentrations program designation.

For information about the MD-MPH program, contact program director Bill Tierney, MD. 

For MD-MBA program information, contact Janelle Cissell, associate director, Kelly School of Business, at cissellj@iu.edu or (317) 274-6280.