IDD Away Rotation
Library
Check out these med schools offering IDD-focused rotations.
NICHE-MED has a growing library of IDD-focused elective rotations for interested medical students who wish to complete an away rotation and apply to become a NICHE-MED Scholar.
Note: This is not a comprehensive list of all medical schools who offer IDD-focused training rotations.
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Rotation Name: MEMED 630 - Life with Intellectual & Developmental Disability
Elective Location: Baylor Transition Medicine Clinic, Texas Children’s Hospital
Duration: 4 weeks
Course Coordinator: Jordan Kemere M.D., kemere@bcm.edu
Faculty: Elisha Acosta, M.D., Jordan Kemere, M.D., M.S., Cynthia Peacock, M.D., Ellen Fremion, M.D., John Berens, M.D., Vrunda Vithalani, M.D.
Course Description: Description: The Caring for Individuals with IDD Across the Lifespan elective aims to provide training to medical students in the field of developmental medicine—the care of individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities across the lifespan. It is a rotation composed of multidisciplinary clinical, didactic, community, and advocacy experiences that act to highlight the unique features of life and clinical care for individuals with a wide variety of intellectual and developmental disabilities. Students will be asked to educate, interact, and care for people, and caregivers of people, with IDD in an empathetic and respectful manner. There will be discussion and exposure to how acute and preventative care, community engagement, and funding are unique for this population with is often underserved and underfunded. The clinical experience will primarily occur at the Baylor Transition Medicine clinic, a medical home for adults with IDD, and various outpatient TCH clinics that serve this population. Additionally, there will be multiple opportunities to engage with community partners.
Learning Objectives:
Demonstrate respectful language and interaction with individuals with IDD
Understand and acknowledge implicit bias related to individuals with disability
Improve medical knowledge and clinical exam skills with patients with IDD
Counsel patients and their support persons in the diagnosis and management of their health conditions.
Understand the unique insurance/funding difficulties for individuals with IDD particularly at the age of transition from pediatric to adult healthcare
Eligibility: Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, or Family Medicine core clerkship must have been completed prior. U.S. Visiting Students Only
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Rotation Name: FCM 850J: Integrative Model of Care in Family Medicine
Elective Location: Dept. of Family and Community Medicine
Duration: 2 weeks
Course Coordinator: Ava Gutierrez, dalila99@arizona.edu
Faculty: Tamsen Bassford, M.D.
Course Description: Students will be familiar with the foundational skills necessary to care for adult patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in a full range of residential settings. The student should develop knowledge of the physical, emotional, and social needs of adults with IDD through the aging process, and familiarity with family, work, social, and community resources available to support their goals.
Learning Objectives:
Become familiar with broad range of neurodevelopmental disorders, including their co-morbidities and functional impairments
Become familiar with the medical and behavioral features of common neurodevelopmental disorders
Become familiar with key support/service issues and medical terminology relevant to the field of developmental medicine
Patient Care:
Provide compassionate, competent, and comprehensive care to adults with IDD. For two patients, with the support of the health care team:
Assemble and interpret essential and accurate information relevant to the health and function of the person with IDD
Assemble information from multiple sources including the patient, family, caretaker, residential, occupational and educational sources
Establish an etiologic diagnosis, referencing relevant information and resources
Perform health and function assessments, screening for specific high-risk conditions and co-morbidities
Conduct appropriate testing in order to identify common secondary health conditions
Recommend healthcare services and information aimed at optimizing wellbeing and function of the person with IDD
Employ appropriate and individualized health screening and prevention
Identify opportunities for functional improvement through appropriate interventions, including assistive technology
Assess the impact of cognitive or physical decline on a patient’s independence and circle of support
Counsel the person with IDD and their support persons in the diagnosis and management of their health conditions
Discuss with patients the etiology and progression of disease
Communicate a simple care plan to patients across the spectrum of cognitive abilities
Appropriately raise and respond to issues concerning sexual and reproductive health, when appropriate
Screen for and discuss prevention of sexual, emotional and physical abuse
Support condition self-management across the spectrum of cognitive abilities
Tailor health promotion and disease prevention education to individual needs of the patient.
Collaborate with the health care team and within formal and informal support systems, to recommend a plan for person-centered care
Utilize a team-based, interdisciplinary approach to ensure efficient, high-quality care
Facilitate referrals to educational, vocational and habilitative services
The student will:
Complete a written comprehensive evaluation on four clinic patient patients and two home visit patients, and present to Dr. Bassford
Attend and participate in all activities
Complete a reflective essay by the end of the course
Complete the National Curriculum Initiative in Developmental Medicine Knowledge and Attitude Surveys at the beginning and at the end of the course.
Eligibility: Students from other U.S. LCME accredited medical schools and U.S. COCA osteopathic medical schools who are in their final year
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Rotation Name: PED610 Pediatric Developmental Disabilities
Elective Location: University of Rochester Medical Center Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, including Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics Clinic, as well as visiting community agencies
Duration: 2 weeks or 4 weeks
Course Coordinator: Carolyn King, Carolyn_King@urmc.rochester.edu
Faculty: Abigail L.H. Kroening M.D.
Course Description: The goal is to familiarize students with typical and atypical child development through clinical experiences, small-group and media-based teaching/learning opportunities, and community-based site experiences, when possible. It is our hope that students will appreciate the role of play in developmental diagnostic evaluations, as well as the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration (with health and community professionals) in supporting a child with disabilities and their family. Students will learn more about autism, intellectual disability, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, cerebral palsy, and other developmental and behavioral diagnoses. Students will also learn more about supporting children/youth with co-occurring conditions (such as sleep, eating, or behavior support needs), educational advocacy within early intervention and special education systems, and community services and their coordination. Students will learn about the impact of implicit ableism as contributing to health inequities experienced by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). All of this will be presented within a person-and-family centered framework, with attention to social and structural determinants of health and recognition of the importance of partnership with people with IDD and their support network.
Learning Objectives:
Use play to understand different domains of development (language, motor, cognitive, social-emotional, adaptive).
Participate in an interdisciplinary diagnostic evaluation for a child with a developmental disability.
Describe the roles of other interdisciplinary team professionals (including psychologist, educator, nurse, social worker, speech pathologist, occupational therapist, physical therapist, audiologist, and nutritionist) in the care and support of a child with a developmental disability.
List differential diagnoses for language delay, intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorders, attention deficits, and motor disability in children and youth.
Participate in the process of care coordination for an individual with complex developmental disability.
Learn firsthand from a Family Experience what life is like for a family when disability is a part of the dynamic and understand how implicit ableism within structures and systems impacts a child/family day-to-day and within health care experiences.
Describe conditions that commonly co-occur with developmental disabilities.
Understand and discuss appropriate use of pharmacologic agents such as psychostimulants, alpha adrenergic agents, atypical antipsychotics, and other medications used in the care of children with developmental disabilities.
Understand how structural and social determinants of health impact early childhood development and developmental trajectories.
Eligibility: Open to visiting students in their final year of their academic curriculum in good academic standing from an LCME accredited medical school or osteopathic school in the U.S. or Canada; Only students attending an international medical school with which the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry (URSMD) has a formal exchange agreement will be considered for elective experiences.
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Rotation Name: Disability Medicine
Elective Location: University of Illinois Health (UI Health) clinics, partner clinics, and partner community organizations
Duration: 2 weeks
Course Coordinator: Meg Baltes, mbalte2@uic.edu
Faculty: Erin Hickey, MD
Maureen (Molly) Fausone, MD
Kristi Kirschner, MD
Mary Keehn, PT, DPT, MHPE
Ann Jackson, PT, DPT, MPH
Sarah Ushkow, MSW, LCSW, CADC
Course Description: The purpose of this course is to teach medical students how to provide high quality health care to individuals with physical disabilities and/or intellectual and developmental disabilities. People with disabilities (PWDs) experience health disparities when compared to the general population, and we hope to improve the health outcomes for this population by targeting training for future physicians from all specialties to provide disability-inclusive care. One in every four adults in the United States has a disability, so all doctors will care for PWDs in their practice and will utilize the competencies learned in this course. The educational opportunities provided in this course include: clinical time in a primary care clinic for kids and adults with disabilities; clinical time in specialty clinics that care for this population; guided discussions on videos of "Day in the Life" experiences with a person with a disability; community-based experiences; one-on-one clinical practice experience with a patient instructor with a disability who will give the student feedback on clinical and communication skills; and interactive learning modules. The two-week course will be mostly in person, with the exception of one half-day dedicated to the online learning modules, which can be done virtually.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of the course students will be able to:
1. Provide patient-centered and disability-inclusive care to patients with a wide range of disabilities.
2. Acquire a conceptual framework of disability in the context of human diversity, the lifespan, wellness, injury and social and cultural environments.
3. Explore and mitigate one's own implicit biases and avoid making assumptions about a person's abilities or lack of abilities and lifestyle.
4. Understand and identify legal requirements for providing health care in a manner that is, at minimum, consistent with federal laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Rehabilitation Act, and Social Security Act to meet the individual needs of people with disabilities.
5. Engage and collaborate with team members within and outside their own discipline to provide high quality, interprofessional team-based health care to people with disabilities.
6. Collect and interpret relevant information about the health and function of patients with disabilities to engage patients in creating a plan of care that includes essential and optimal services and supports.
Eligibility: Must have completed Family Medicine, Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Clerkship. Must apply and be accepted through AAMC Visiting Student Learning Opportunities portal with all supporting documentation.
Registration for the 2026 Elective is currently closed but continue to check VSLO for the next open registration and, in the meantime, access the free asynchronous didactic online course modules available from Advancing Disability-Inclusive Healthcare | University of Illinois Chicago.