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Promoting wellness and providing reliable health information in the community present serious challenges. Lay health educators, also known as community health workers, may offer a cost-effective solution to such challenges. This is a retrospective observational study of graduates from the Lay Health Educator Program (LHEP) at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center from 2013 to 2014. Students were enrolled from the surrounding community congregations and from the hospital's accredited clinical pastoral education program. There were 50 events implemented by the lay health educators during the 2014-2015 time period, reaching a total of 2004 individuals. The mean time from date of graduation from the LHEP to implementation of their first health promotional event was 196 ± 76 days. A significant number of lay health educators implemented events within the first year after completing their training. Ongoing monitoring of their community activity and the clinical impact of their efforts should be a priority for future studies.

INTRODUCTION Physicians are looked upon to lead the healthcare team, a task that has grown increasingly complex and interdisciplinary, requiring a diverse extra-clinical skillset. Physician Executive Leadership (PEL) Plus is a student-run program that uniquely utilizes both didactic and real-world project-based approaches to deliver a business and management curriculum to medical students. METHODS We developed and implemented PEL Plus during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 academic years, geared at first- and second-year medical students. We provide an overview of this combined didactic and project-based curriculum, in addition to evaluating if the program was efficacious in teaching the desired skillset. We assessed short-term knowledge acquisition using multiple-choice questions, and investigated student perceptions of their learning and the program using Likert scales and narrative feedback. We also investigated the influence of student demographics on performance, in order to assess the appropriateness of our target audience. RESULTS 28 students completed PEL Plus over the two years (14 students/year). Average performance on multiple-choice questions showed statistically significant improvement after the majority of sessions. There were no statistically significant effects of demographics on performance in the majority of sessions. Students self-rated stronger understandings of lecture topics after each session, and analysis of narrative feedback demonstrated thematic categories centred on teaching style, new knowledge, lecture content/material, projects, networking, program structure, and generic statements. DISCUSSION PEL Plus is an innovative and effective approach to teaching business, leadership, and management skills in undergraduate medical education. Development of similar programs at other institutions will positively impact the broader medical student community.

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