Health Professions Partnership Initiative (HPPI)

The Health Professions Partnership Initiative (HPPI) was developed by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and funded by the The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. HPPI challenged U.S. graduate health professions schools to link with K-12 school systems, undergraduate colleges, community-based organizations, businesses, and health departments, among others, to improve curricula and educational programs in ways that prepare and attract more minority students to go into health careers.

The HPPI model was based on established research showing that minority students share the same level of aspiration to health careers as majority students, but typically do no receive the secondary education and support necessary to ensure their achievement in entering and succeeding in professional health careers. Enrichment programs alone do not provide enough educational content to make a difference in academic performance; adding social and motivational incentives has been shown to help these efforts succeed. HPPI is based on the premise that health professions schools cannot solve the minority under-representation problem single-handedly.

Three rounds of grants-beginning in 1996, 1998, and 2000-each were awarded for a period of five years to 26 health professions schools: 18 schools of medicine, 5 schools of public health, 1 school of nursing, and 1 school of allied health. Public health became an additional focus of the HPPI grants in the third cycle of HPPI funding, so five accredited schools of public health were awarded funding specifically to lead Public Health HPPI grants (PH-HPPI) to increase career awareness and integrate public health in the curricula of students (K-12 to post-graduate), and the current health professions workforce. The Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) was brought in as a partner to help administer and provide technical assistance with the five public health grants.