The UC Berkeley–UCSF Joint Medical Program (JMP) is a five-year graduate/medical degree program. Students spend their pre-clerkship years at UC Berkeley engaging in a unique medical curriculum centered around student-led inquiry while simultaneously earning a master’s degree (MS) in the Health and Medical Sciences at Berkeley Public Health. After two and a half years, students move across the Bay to UCSF to finish their medical education and receive their medical doctorate (MD).
After checking the JMP box, applicants will be prompted to provide additional JMP-specific materials, including two short essay questions. Only applicants who have checked the JMP box on their UCSF secondary application will be considered for JMP admission.
The UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program (JMP), the only medical program in the country housed in a school of Public Health, teaches medicine in the broader context of public & community health. The master’s in science (MS) curriculum supports the JMP’s vision to develop antiracist physicians and public health changemakers by adding a framework of collaborative practice, systems thinking and critical inquiry to the traditional medical education. This framework affords students the intellectual, practical, and humanistic skills to promote and lead change processes aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities. The master’s curriculum, like the overall JMP approach, involves experiences that lead to transformation by centering inquiry, questioning dominant ideologies, and supporting the learner in the creation of new habits of mind and new points of view that result from deep reflection and emotional involvement.
Our approach is 3 pronged:
structured mentorship for a master’s project,
foundational courses in Public Health and Health Systems that support the student’s project and contextualizes the practice of medicine, and
freedom to choose additional courses that support the student’s project.
Curriculum
The following outline describes the course requirements for the JMP curriculum with a minimum of 29 credit units taken for your master’s in addition to the medical curriculum.
JMP students pursue diverse scholarly approaches for their master’s projects including research based on quantitative and qualitative biomedical and social science methods, situational, social, and cultural analyses framed by critical theory; organizing and advocacy within marginalized communities; and research framed by interpretive frameworks. The broad range of scholarly topics are part of what makes the JMP MS unique. Examples include: Mapping rescue asthma inhaler use and outdoor air pollution: a geospatial-temporal analysis; How Does Income Affect Fertility? An Analysis of Oportunidades, Mexico’s Conditional Cash Transfer Program; Teaching Structure: Lessons Learned From Curricular Innovations in Structural Competency.
Master’s project topics typically align with the JMP’s mission and vision. They include traditional scientific research (i.e., creation of new knowledge) and also scholarly work focused on the application of existing knowledge —without excluding the possibility of creating new knowledge— resulting in direct contributions to communities in the forms of evaluation, organizing, advocacy, and/or service work. Previous scholarly work included areas such as: Bioengineering, Developmental Psychology, Economics, Environmental Sciences, Health Policy, Human Rights, Immunology, Law, Clinical Medicine, Public Health, BioEthics, Microbiology, Native American Studies, Neuroscience, Public Health, Public Policy, Social Welfare, Sociology, and Toxicology to name a few. Explore the range of topics that JMP students have studied in this searchable e-scholarship database, which includes the electronic version of the vast majority of submitted theses over the last 30 years (the most recent theses are embargoed for a two to three year period.)
Courses
Health and Medical Sciences Program
Terms offered: Spring 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2021
The five semester sequence introducing principles of the medical basic science, health policy, public health, and clinical aspects of medicine taught in a contextual-integrated case-based format. The sequence includes curriculum in biochemistry, histology, microbiology, immunology, neuroanatomy, pathology, physiology, pharmacology, and clinical sciences. Foundational Sciences through Problem-Based Learning: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing in Health and Medical Science Joint Medical Program
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit up to a total of 5 times.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 9 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Health and Medical Sciences/Graduate
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
The focus of this course is on medical physiology—the study of the human body's normal functioning. Physiology underpins the rest of the foundational medical sciences curriculum by allowing students to map and anchor the additional learning necessary to make sense of complex problem-based learning (PBL) medical cases later in the curriculum. Students will learn physiology through team-based learning (TBL), a student-centered pedagogy in which they work with physiological problems to solve them collaboratively. By actively engaging in learning through problem-solving, students do more than memorize content; they learn how to work together to build a strong web of interconnected information to solve real-world problems. Foundational Medical Sciences: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Student Learning Outcomes: Create rich and elaborated causal networks that explain physiological processes.
Develop and practice evidence-based self-regulated learning skills.
Develop communication skills that support effective teamwork.
Learn from an anti-racist lens and actively practice anti-racism in the classroom.
Skillfully contribute to learning in collaborative teams.
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing in Health and Medical Science Joint Medical Program. JMP first year student fall semester
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Beginning in this semester, you will learn all the foundational medical sciences through problem-based learning (PBL), which builds upon the foundation of physiological knowledge learned through TBL in your first semester. PBL is an evidence-based educational strategy underpinned by a constructivist philosophy of learning. The foundational medical sciences include, among others, pathology, pharmacology, biochemistry, immunology, microbiology, genetics, behavioral sciences, epidemiology, public health, medical sociology, and other social sciences. Foundational Medical Sciences: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Student Learning Outcomes: Create rich and elaborated causal networks that explain physiological processes.
Develop and practice evidence-based self-regulated learning skills.
Develop communication skills that support effective teamwork.
Learn from an anti-racist lens and actively practice anti-racism in the classroom.
Skillfully contribute to learning in collaborative teams.
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing in Health and Medical Science Joint Medical Program
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 9 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Health and Medical Sciences/Graduate
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Continuing your study of foundational medical sciences through problem-based learning (PBL), this is the second PBL course in a series of 4. PBL is an evidence-based educational strategy underpinned by a constructivist philosophy of learning. The foundational medical sciences include, among others, pathology, pharmacology, biochemistry, immunology, microbiology, genetics, behavioral sciences, epidemiology, public health, medical sociology, and other social sciences. Foundational Medical Sciences C: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Student Learning Outcomes: Learn from an anti-racist lens and actively practice anti-racism in the classroom.
Create rich and elaborated causal networks that explain physiological processes.
Develop and practice evidence-based self-regulated learning skills.
Develop communication skills that support effective teamwork.
Skillfully contribute to learning in collaborative teams.
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Must be enrolled in the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Continuing your study of foundational medical sciences through problem-based learning (PBL), this is the third PBL course in a series
of four. PBL is an evidence-based educational strategy underpinned by a constructivist philosophy of learning. The foundational medical
sciences include, among others, pathology, pharmacology, biochemistry, immunology, microbiology, genetics, behavioral
sciences, epidemiology, public health, medical sociology, and other social sciences. Foundational Medical Sciences D: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Student Learning Outcomes: Create rich and elaborated causal networks that explain physiological processes.
Develop and practice evidence-based self-regulated learning skills.
Develop communication skills that support effective teamwork.
Learn from an anti-racist lens and actively practice anti-racism in the classroom.
Skillfully contribute to learning in collaborative teams.
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Must be enrolled in the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Continuing your study of foundational medical sciences through problem-based learning (PBL), this is the final PBL course in a series
of four. PBL is an evidence-based educational strategy underpinned by a constructivist philosophy of learning. The foundational medical sciences include, among others, pathology, pharmacology, biochemistry, immunology, microbiology, genetics, behavioral
sciences, epidemiology, public health, medical sociology, and other social sciences. Foundational Medical Sciences E: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Student Learning Outcomes: Create rich and elaborated causal networks that explain physiological processes
Develop and practice evidence-based self-regulated learning skills.
Develop communication skills that support effective teamwork.
Learn from an anti-racist lens and actively practice anti-racism in the classroom.
Skillfully contribute to learning in collaborative teams.
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Must be enrolled in the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 9 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Health and Medical Sciences/Graduate
Terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Fall 2021
Clinical Medicine at the JMP is designed to learn and practice the basic skills, knowledge and professionalism needed for the practice of medicine. Students enroll in the course for four consecutive semesters during their first and second years. Clinical Medicine: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: HMS 214
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 6 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Health and Medical Sciences/Graduate
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This is the first semester of a mandatory 5 semester Clinical Medicine course. It lays down the foundation for building upon history-taking and physical exam skills and introduces concepts of anti-racism for future integration in your clinical interviews, exams, and communication. The course uses a combination of small group sessions, standardized patient encounters, and intensive clinical encounters within a seminar setting to prepare students to thrive in clinical rotations as curious and self-driven learners, compassionate, clinically astute and just health care providers, and effective and collaborative team members. Clinical Medicine A: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing in Health and Medical Science Joint Medical Program
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Health and Medical Sciences/Graduate
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This is the second semester of a mandatory 5 semester Clinical Medicine course. It lays down the foundation for building upon history-taking and physical exam skills and introduces concepts of anti-racism for future integration in your clinical interviews, exams, and communication. The course uses a combination of small group sessions, standardized patient encounters, and intensive clinical encounters to prepare students to thrive in clinical rotations as curious and self-driven learners, compassionate, clinically astute and just health care providers, and effective and collaborative team members.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This is the third semester of a mandatory 5 semester Clinical Medicine course. It builds upon the foundation for history-taking and physical exam skills with of focus on differential diagnoses and integrates concepts of anti-racism in your clinical interviews, exams, and communication. The course uses a combination of small group sessions, standardized patient encounters, and intensive clinical encounters within a seminar setting to prepare students to thrive in clinical rotations as curious and self-driven learners, compassionate, clinically astute and just health care providers, and effective and collaborative team members.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This is the fourth semester of a mandatory 5 semester Clinical Medicine course. It builds upon the foundation for history-taking and physical exam skills with focus on differential diagnoses and integrates concepts of anti-racism in your clinical interviews, exams, and communication. The course uses a combination of small group sessions, standardized patient encounters, and intensive clinical encounters to prepare students to thrive in clinical rotations as curious and self-driven learners, compassionate, clinically astute and just health care providers, and effective and collaborative team members.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This is the final semester of a mandatory 5 semester Clinical Medicine course. It builds upon the clinical skills developed in the first four semesters, integrating antiracism and clinical reasoning throughout your clinical interviews, exams, and communication. The course uses a combination of small group sessions, standardized patient encounters, and intensive clinical encounters within a seminar setting to prepare students to thrive in clinical rotations as curious and self-driven learners, compassionate, clinically astute and just health care providers, and effective and collaborative team members.
Terms offered: Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2019
The overall goals of this course is for students to learn and practice advanced interviewing, integrated and focused clinical history-taking, physical exam skills, clinical decision making and problem solving skills, H & P and SOAP notes, oral case presentations and professionalism in clinical settings. Coursework is divided in 5 elements of Classroom Sessions, Psychiatric Interview, Kaiser PACE Week, 4 Inpatient Preceptorships, and 2 standardized patient exercises at SMU
Terms offered: Spring 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2021
A seminar to help Joint Medical Program students acquire skills necessary to define a research question, find appropriate mentorship, and design a research project. Summer course introduces research design, methods, and expectations for M.S. research in Health and Medical Sciences. Fall and spring semesters address topics in research; student progress toward M.S. thesis is reviewed and critiqued. Development of research plan, protocol design and implementation, and research findings will be reviewed. Each student takes this course three times in the first year. Research Seminar: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing in Health and Medical Sciences UCB-UCSF Joint Medical Program
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of seminar per week
Summer: 8 weeks - 6 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Health and Medical Sciences/Graduate
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This graduate course aims to support the students’ development as scholars and medical learners with a critical stance. This seminar has two components. The first is a discussion seminar focusing on 1) understanding the relationship between theory and method in designing research protocols and conducting social scientific research and 2) translating research questions into methods/research design, including appropriate measurements. The second component is a practicum; students will apply the theoretical concepts, historical analyses, and conversations about methods from the seminar to the research projects that students will develop. It includes practical aspects such as writing skills, information literacy, grantsmanship, etc. JMP Masters Seminar Thinking Critically about Medicine: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing in Health and Medical Science Joint Medical Program
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3.5 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Health and Medical Sciences/Graduate
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This is the second in a series of 5 courses designed to support graduate students’ development as scholars and medical learners with a critical stance. This course provides a scaffold for students to make progress on their master’s project work. To support this process, students will use class time to work in the context of their groups, which are assigned based on methodological affinity or topic affinity. Students can move between groups as needed, and new groups may be formed when needed. Students will continue working on translating research questions into methods/research design, including appropriate measurements. JMP Masters Seminar: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing in Health and Medical Science Joint Medical Program
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Health and Medical Sciences/Graduate
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
JMP Masters Seminar & Community Leadership is a series of 3 courses with two components in each one. The first one is the master’s working group seminar; students will use class time to make progress on their master’s project work in the context of groups assigned based on methodological affinity or topical affinity.
The second component, Antiracist Advocacy and Leadership in Medicine, addresses how JMP students show up in the community first as antiracist medical students, and then as antiracist physicians; it provides foundational skills to change structures to advance health equity by focusing on leadership development, community engagement, and strategies to create authentic partnerships with community members to advance health equity. JMP Masters Seminar & Community Leadership: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: You must be enrolled as a graduate student in the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Health and Medical Sciences/Graduate
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
The 2nd of the JMP Masters Seminar & Community Leadership series of 3 courses with two components. The 1st component is the master’s working group seminar; students will use class time to make progress on their master’s project work in the context of groups assigned based on methodological affinity or topical affinity.
The 2nd component, Antiracist Advocacy & Leadership in Medicine, addresses how JMP students show up in the community first as antiracist medical students, and then as antiracist physicians; it provides foundational skills to change structures to advance health equity by focusing on leadership development, community engagement, and strategies to create authentic partnerships with community members to advance health equity. JMP Masters Seminar & Community Leadership D: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Prerequisite: Enrolled as a graduate student in the UCB-UCSF Joint Medical Program
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Health and Medical Sciences/Graduate
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
The 3rd of the JMP Masters Seminar & Community Leadership series of 3 courses with two components. The 1st component is the master’s working group seminar; students will use class time to make progress on their master’s project work in the context of groups assigned based on methodological affinity or topical affinity.
The 2nd component, Antiracist Advocacy & Leadership in Medicine, addresses how JMP students show up in the community first as antiracist medical students, and then as antiracist physicians; it provides foundational skills to change structures to advance health equity by focusing on leadership development, community engagement, and strategies to create authentic partnerships with community members to advance health equity.
Terms offered: Fall 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2020
The Epidemiology/Reproductive Health/ Evaluation TWG provides JMP students a supportive small group student-centered environment in which to discuss their research with other students engaged in Epidemiology/Reproductive Health/ Evaluation projects towards the goal of the successful completion of the required JMP MS. Basic, Clinical, and Behavioral Research Thesis Working Group: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: To develop specific skills in Epidemiology/Reproductive Health/ Evaluation research design, planning and implementation, data collection, analysis, presentation and publication. To give students a supportive environment in which to discuss their research with students and faculty who are engaged in similar research. To give students the opportunity to provide peer advising to their classmates regarding their research projects. To provide students with individual mentoring by TWG leaders during outside sessions planned between faculty and students To support students in developing skills in working with a mentor, developing a research design, obtaining IRB approval, collecting and analyzing data, managing a research project, presenting findings as posters or oral presentations, presenting research to the community, and drafting a master’s thesis and/or publication
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 2nd year students-HMS 261 completed with no incompletes 3rd year students-prior HMS 265 completed with no incompletes
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit up to a total of 4 times.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-5 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Health and Medical Sciences/Graduate
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
Designed to permit qualified graduate students to pursue special study under the direction of a faculty member. Special Study: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 0-3 hours of independent study per week
Summer: 8 weeks - 0-3 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Health and Medical Sciences/Graduate
Terms offered: Fall 2022, Spring 2014, Spring 2013
Group study for graduate students. Intensive examination of health-related topics. Directed Group Study: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing in Health and Medical Sciences Program or consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-5 hours of independent study per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 2.5-12.5 hours of independent study per week 8 weeks - 1.5-7.5 hours of independent study per week 10 weeks - 1.5-4 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Health and Medical Sciences/Graduate
Grading: The grading option will be decided by the instructor when the class is offered.
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