Brown U. intros population health degree program for docs in training

Alpert Medical School of Brown University is introducing a program meant to teach primary care doctors to think beyond the care of individual patients. The school is planning a dual degree program, to begin in 2015, in which doctors in training can earn a master's degree in population health. The program will enroll 24 people per class who plan to work in primary care, and the curriculum will include disease prevention and the needs of certain patient groups, such as newborns and new mothers or the elderly, said Dr. Edward Wing, dean of medicine and biological sciences.