Skip to main content

Apply for a scholarly concentration

Welcome to the Scholarly Concentrations Program application site for current medical students.

Applications to the Scholarly Concentrations program will be available and accepted from Dec. 6, 2024, until Jan. 5, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Watch this site in the fall for detailed information about each concentration. The application will be live Dec. 6.

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. The program is longitudinal and occurs alongside your core medical education. Before applying to a concentration, it is critical that you talk with the concentration co-directors and your lead advisor to determine if the plan of study will work in your schedule and aligns with your interests. See available concentrations below for details about recruitment, location requirements, and what you can expect to do in summer 2025.

Students who complete a concentration earn eight weeks of non-clinical elective credits toward graduation, a scholarly concentration designation on their transcript and are recognized at graduation.

Learn more about the program

Questions?

Check out the FAQs.

Available concentrations: details, expectations for summer 2025

Available spots for 2023-2024 application cycle: 6-8

Home campus is Indianapolis. All coursework and scholarly work (except the online Fundamentals of Research and Scholarship and the Clinical Research Methods course) takes place at the Indianapolis campus.

Acceptance to and completion of IMPRS Summer Research Program is required for this concentration.

Be prepared to do the following during summer and fall 2024:

Date Course
05/23/2024–08/01/2024  Fundamentals of Research and Scholarship 
05/23/2024–06/28/2024  Clinical Research Methods
05/23/2024–8/01/2024 Research Topics in Medicine
05/23/2024–08/01/2024 Complete IMPRS research project that serves as launching pad for scholarly concentrations project
TBD Fall 2024 Immersion in Clinical and Patient-Oriented Research

View more information, including requirements, course descriptions and overall timeline for this concentration.

Co-Directors Contacts

Erika R. Cheng, MPA, PhD | echeng@iu.edu | 317-278-0552
Lisa G. Yazel, EdD | smithlg@iu.edu | 317-278-9615

Available spots for 2023-2024 application cycle: 25

All coursework is online. Scholarly project locations vary by project but focus on Indianapolis area.

Be prepared to do the following during summer 2024:

Date Course
05/23/2024–08/01/2024  Fundamentals of Research and Scholarship 
06/01/2024–07/30/2024 

Value Creations and Financial Performance of Health Care Systems

06/01/2024–07/30/2024

Business Management of the Patient Experience


View more information, including requirements, course descriptions and overall timeline for this concentration.

Co-Directors Contacts

Kyle Anderson, PhD | kyjander@iu.edu | 317-274-0150

Gregory Katzman, MD, MBA | gkatzman@iu.edu | 317-953-6637

Janelle Cissell | cissellj@iu.edu | 317-278-6280

Available spots for 2023-2024 application cycle: 5

Home campus is Indianapolis. All coursework (except the online Fundamentals of Research and Scholarship, Genomic Medicine Journal Club, and Online Clinical Case Review) and scholarly project takes place at the Indianapolis campus.

Be prepared to do the following during summer and fall 2024, and academic year 2024-2025:

Date Course
05/23/2024–08/01/2024  Fundamentals of Research and Scholarship 
05/20/2024–07/31/2024  Online Clinical Case Review
05/20/2024–07/31/2024 Essential Laboratory Translation in Genomic Medicine
05/20/2024–07/31/2024 Effective Communications in Genomic Medicine
05/20/2024–07/31/2024 Work on scholarly project
05/20/2024–12/15/2025
Genomic Medicine Journal Club

View more information, including requirements, course descriptions and overall timeline for this concentration.

Co-Directors Contacts

Brittney-Shea Herbert, PhD | brherber@iu.edu | 317-274-6147

Vinaya Murthy, MPH | vmurthy@iu.edu

Available spots for 2023-2024 application cycle: 6

Home campus is Fort Wayne. However, all coursework is online. The scholarly project work occurs in Fort Wayne or Indianapolis.

Be prepared to complete or start the following during summer 2024 and academic year 2024-2025:

Date Course
05/23/2024–08/01/2024  Fundamentals of Research and Scholarship 
05/20/2024–04/11/2024  Population and Public Health Approaches to Aging
05/20/2024–04/11/2024 Health Care Integration and Healthy Aging
08/07/2024–04/11/2025 Journal Club
Summer 2024 Work on scholarly project

View more information, including requirements, course descriptions and overall timeline for this concentration.

Co-Directors Contacts

Bob Sweazey, PhD | rsweazey@iu.edu | 260-257-6863

Leslie A. Hoffman, PhD | lesahoff@iu.edu | 260-257-6842

Available spots for 2023-2024 application cycle: 8

Home campus is Muncie. Coursework is both online and on the Muncie campus. The scholarly project work typically takes place on the Muncie campus.

Be prepared to do the following during summer 2024 and ongoing:

Date Course
05/23/2024–08/01/2024  Fundamentals of Research and Scholarship 
05/22/2024–08/04/2024  Introduction to Public Health
05/20/2024–01/31/2027 Lifestyle Medicine

View more information, including requirements, course descriptions and overall timeline for this concentration.

Co-Directors Contacts

Larry Fromm, PhD | lfromm@iu.edu | 765-751-5111

Michael Litt, PhD | mlitt@iu.edu | 765-751-5110

Lynn Witty, MD | lwitty@iu.edu

Available spots for 2023-2024 application cycle: 2-4

Home campus is Bloomington and all concentration work (except the online Fundamentals of Research and Scholarship course) occurs in Bloomington.

Be prepared to do the following during summer 2024:

Date Course
05/23/2024–08/01/2024  Fundamentals of Research and Scholarship 
06/03/2024–06/28/2024  Introduction to Human Sexuality
06/03/2024–06/28/2024 Critical Issues in Sexuality and Health
Summer 2024 Work on scholarly project

View more information, including requirements, course descriptions and overall timeline for this concentration.

Co-Directors Contacts

Charles N Rudick, PhD  | crudick@iu.edu | 312-833-2120

Justin R Garcia, PhD | jusrgarc@iu.edu | 812-856-1504

Jessica J. Hille, JD, PhD | jhille@iu.edu | 812-855-404

Available spots for 2023-2024 application cycle: 20

All concentration coursework can be completed online. The scholarly project work occurs in the student’s campus city and/or region or a mutually agreed upon site.

Be prepared to do the following during summer 2024:

Date Course
05/22/2024–08/04/2024
Introduction to Public Health
05/23/2024–08/01/2024  Fundamentals of Research and Scholarship 
05/22/2024–08/04/2024 Population Health for Clinicians
Summer 2024 Identify mentor; Choose scholarly project topic; Work on scholarly project

View more information, including requirements, course descriptions and overall timeline for this concentration.

Co-Directors Contacts

Paul Halverson, DrPH, MHSA | pkhalver@iu.edu | 317-274-4242

William Tierney, MD | wtierney@iu.edu | 317-278-9531

Amanda Benaderet, MD, MPH | abenader@iu.edu | 317-948-2700

Priscilla Barnes, PhD | prbarnes@iu.edu | 812-855-4789

Jordan Holmes, MD | jorholme@iu.edu |

Cassidy McNamee, MPH, program coordinator | mcnamee@iu.edu | 317-274-5725

Available spots for 2023-2024 application cycle: 10

Home campus is Evansville. All coursework and scholarly work (except the online Fundamentals of Research and Scholarship course) takes place at the Evansville campus.

Be prepared to do the following during summer 2023:

Date Course
06/03/2024–06/07/2024 Introduction to Health Care Innovation and Implementation
06/10/2024–07/26/2024 Learn Six Sigma for Healthcare Professionals
06/05/2024–07/28/2024 Scholarly concentration project

View more information, including requirements, course descriptions and overall timeline for this concentration.

Co-Directors Contacts

Kara Garcia, PhD | karagarc@iu.edu | 812-909-7230

Art Chlebowski, PhD | achlebow@iu.edu | 812-464-1881

Available spots for 2023-2024 application cycle: 8

All coursework is online. Scholarly project locations vary by project and by agreement.

Be prepared to do the following during summer 2024: 

Date Course
05/23/2024–08/01/2024  Fundamentals of Research and Scholarship 
06/03/2024–06/28/2024  Survey of Spiritual Traditions and Concepts in Health
07/05/2024–8/02/2024 Survey of Spiritual Care Practice and the Research of Spirit
During summer Work on scholarly project
Please note that summer courses occur Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:30 p.m.–5 p.m. and Fridays, 3 p.m.–5 p.m.

View more information, including requirements, course descriptions and overall timeline for this concentration.

Co-Directors Contacts

Alex Lion DO, MPH | alion@iu.edu | 559-709-8228

Mona Raed MD | mraed@iuhealth.org | 440-667-3045

Available spots for 2023-2024 application cycle: 8

Home campus is Terre Haute. This concentration is open only to students at the Terre Haute campus. All coursework is online. Scholarly project work can occur in any rural community.

Be prepared to do the following during summer and fall 2024:

Date Course
05/23/2024–08/01/2024  Fundamentals of Research and Scholarship 
05/22/2024–08/04/2024  Introduction to Public Health
05/23/2024–8/01/2024 Introduction to Rural and Agricultural Health
08/19/2024–12/13/2024 Rural Health Journal Club

View more information, including requirements, course descriptions and overall timeline for this concentration.

Co-Directors Contacts

Ellen Ireland, PhD | eireland@iu.edu | 812-237-8323

Robin Danek, MPH | rdanek@iu.edu | 812-237-2469

Interested in applying for IMPRS or another summer experience?

It may be possible to do both a scholarly concentration and the IMPRS Summer Research program and  during the summer between your first and second years of medical school. IMPRS can serve as a great launching pad to a longitudinal scholarly concentration project and manuscript. The IMPRS project alone does not qualify as the scholarly concentration project. Your IMPRS research must align with your concentration and you need to be able to continue the work with your mentor longitudinally during medical school. The same goes for the summer IU School of Medicine AmeriCorps or other summer research.

The chart below indicates which scholarly concentrations align well with IMPRS. If you are interested in pursuing both a scholarly concentration and IMPRS, you must get in touch with the scholarly concentration co-director(s) and complete the IMPRS interest form. Having conversations about how any of these activities align and that your project works for both is hugely important.

Also, keep in mind that IMPRS has a significant time requirement during the summer — 40 hours per week. Most concentrations offer their courses and have students begin work on their project during the summer. Doing both programs is like working a full-time job during the day (IMPRS) and taking classes at night (scholarly concentration). You won’t have time to complete IMPRS in the summer and do a separate Scholarly Concentrations project and product.

Disclaimer: If you are applying to IMPRS, please note that there is no guarantee of being accepted to IMPRS. Acceptance into IMPRS doesn’t impact acceptance into a scholarly concentration. However, the Biomedical Research concentration requires participation in IMPRS.

Does my concentration align well with IMPRS?
Yes No Maybe
   Business of Medicine  Human Sexuality and Health
Biomedical Research


Genetics in Medicine
 
Health Care Integration and Healthy Aging
 
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
 
Public Health
   
Quality and Innovation in Health Care    
Rural Health
   
Religion and Spirituality in Medicine
   

Have an issue? Email the Scholarly Concentrations team