Metropolitan Physician Associate Program was established in 2010. The curriculum was developed by then director Dr. Kathleen Brooks with advice from her colleagues at the University of Minnesota, the Harvard Macy Program for Educators and the international Consortium of Longitudinal Integrated Clerkships. It was one of the early urban longitudinal integrated clerkships (LICs) and the first known LIC in the world with a specific mission to nurture student interest in urban underserved primary care medicine. As an LIC, it was created to provide third-year medical students with a nine-month clinical curriculum that incorporated the core clinical clerkships within it, including both inpatient and outpatient experiences in multiple disciplines. Incorporating a number of the success elements of the University of Minnesota’s longstanding RPAP program, MetroPAP became an urban “sister” program to RPAP. It is a novel LIC model in locating the student’s primary care experience within a family medicine residency.

Drs. Shailey Prasad and Michael Wootten agreed to be the first primary preceptors and to base the first MetroPAP students at the Broadway Family Medicine Clinic, a part of the University of Minnesota North Memorial Family Medicine residency program. They worked with Dr. Brooks to engage the community preceptors in multiple disciplines at North Memorial to participate as teachers. Some of those specialists had been RPAP students years earlier.

The program has expanded over ensuing years to other sites, including other family medicine residency sites. Students have engaged in significant social justice and community health work along with their clinical education.