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Apply for a scholarly concentration

Applications to the Scholarly Concentrations program will be open from late fall through early January. Specific application dates and more information about the process will be available leading up to the application window.

Available concentrations

  • Biomedical Research

    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

  • Business of Medicine

    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

  • Genetics in Medicine

    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

  • Health Care Integration and Healthy Aging

    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

  • Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

    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

  • Human Sexuality and Health

    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

  • Medical Education

    Available spots for 2023-2024 application cycle: 4

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

    Be prepared to do the following during Summer 2024:

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

    05/20/2024–06/30/2024*

    *Dates flexible to accommodate student's summer schedule

    Introduction to Clinical Case Study Development for Non-didactic Learning
    Winter–Spring 2025 Pedagogical Methods in the Health Sciences
    Summer 2024 Work on scholarly project

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

    Co-Directors Contacts

    Valerie O’Laughlin, PhD | vdean@iu.edu | 812-855- 7723

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

    Polly Husmann, PhD | phusmann@iu.edu | 812-856- 2373

  • Medical Humanities

    Available spots for 2023-2024 application cycle: 10

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

    Be prepared to do the following during Summer 2024:

    Date Course
    05/23/2024–08/01/2024  Fundamentals of Research and Scholarship 
    05/21/2024–06/13/2024  Introduction to Medical Humanities: Perspectives to Health Disease, and Healing
    Summer 2024 Work on scholarly project

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

    Co-Directors Contacts

    Emily Beckman, DMH | embeckma@iu.edu | 317-274-4755

    Jane Hartsock, JD | jaaharts@iu.edu | 317-274-2906

  • Public Health

    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

  • Quality and Innovation in Health Care

    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

  • Religion and Spirituality in Medicine

    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

  • Rural Health

    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 the IMPRS Summer Research program and a scholarly concentration 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. Participants must be interested in a topic that can be pursued longitudinally. 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).

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
Biomedical Engineering and Applied Medical Technology
Business of Medicine Human Sexuality and Health
Biomedical Research   Care of Hispanic/Latino Patients
Genetics in Medicine   Ethics, Equity and Justice
Health Care Integration and Healthy Aging   Medical Education
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention    
Medical Humanities    
Public Health    
Quality and Innovation in Health Care    
Rural Health    
Urban Medicine and Health Care Disparities    
Religion and Spirituality in Medicine