Advancing Health Equity in Psychology
#46. Distinguishing Workforce Diversity from Health Equity Efforts in Medicine.
"Profound disparities .. against racial and ethnic minoritized groups, have galvanized many academic medical centers and health systems to bolster efforts surrounding diversity, inclusion, and health equity. New offices, committees, or positions have commonly been established to lead these efforts, often all falling under a single umbrella.
But there is a pervasive conflation of the goal of workforce diversity, inclusion, and equity with the goal of equity in patient care and the health of surrounding communities. Disentangling this conflation could facilitate adoption of more effective approaches, incorporating the appropriate and distinct expertise, infrastructure, and leaders needed to tackle unique institutional and societal problems.""To distinguish efforts aimed at workforce diversity from those targeting equity in patient care delivery and health of surrounding communities" please refer to the recommendations in the above article.
#47. USPSTF strategies to mitigate systemic racism
Actions to Transform US Preventive Services Task Force Methods to Mitigate Systemic Racism in Clinical Preventive Services - PubMed (nih.gov)
No matter how many institutional statements are made condemning racist acts, we cannot expect to overcome structural racism within academic medicine until we acknowledge the reality of aversive racism.
Calling Out Aversive Racism in Academic Medicine | NEJM
#48. Documenting Racial Bias in the EMR
This University of Chicago study used natural language processing and machine learning methods to analyze 40,113 history and physical notes.
They found that "compared with White patients, Black patients had 2.54 times the odds of having at least one negative descriptor in the history and physical notes. Our findings raise concerns about stigmatizing language in the EHR and its potential to exacerbate racial and ethnic health care disparities."
"Better education on race and racism may help equip providers with the understanding needed to identify, prevent introduction of, and discontinue use of negative descriptors in the EHR"
#49. Diversity
in Medicine Lecture, Dr. Audra Meadows
We are excited to host our Winter Quarter 2022 Diversity in Medicine Lecture in-person, for the first time in 2 years. Dr. Audra Meadows, Special Director of Health Equity and Systems Science for the Division of Medical Education, and Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Services, will speak on "The Birth Equity Journey: Optimizing Maternity Care" on Thursday, February 17, from 5-6 pm at the Linda and James Ong Family Auditorium in the Medical Education and Telemedicine Building.
Dr. Meadows is nationally recognized for her work to innovate prenatal care, promote teaming in maternity care, and develop tools that improve obstetric safety and achieve equity. Her research is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to investigate strategies to optimize pregnancy care and experiences with a particular emphasis on including the voices of those pregnant and parenting in identifying these strategies.
Dr. Meadows is actively engaged in quality improvement projects to promote teaming and tools that improve obstetric safety and equity. Prior to joining UC San Diego Health, she was an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, served as medical director of the Brigham and Women's Hospital obstetrics practice, and led maternal child health programs in Massachusetts.
Dr. Meadows' myriad research interests pertaining to race conscious medicine, includes:
Challenging the Use of Race in the Vaginal Birth after Cesarean Section Calculator (whijournal.com)
#50. Colonialism and
Health
Our thoughts are with the people of Ukraine, including several medical students, international students on the main campus, and faculty, who fear for the safety of family and friends and the political future of Ukraine. If you have students or peers with connections to Ukraine (or Russia), we can connect them to a faculty member (Psychiatry) who generously offered to assist in addressing their anxiety and distress, as he copes with his concerns for his ancestral home.
The February issue of Health Affairs is dedicated to Racism and Health. Health Affairs | Vol 41, No 2
#51. by MS4 Betial Asmerom
We proudly announce that MS4 Betial Asmerom received the 2022 Excellence in Public Health Award by the US Public Health Service. This award recognizes visionary medical students who advocate for initiatives to improve social justice and health equity. Betial also received the 2021 County of San Diego Health Advisory Board Community Inspiration Award for her leadership (in partnership with Lydia Ikeda and UCSD Health) in advocating for and providing COVID vaccine equity. Betial received the 2019 AAMC Nickens Award for her health equity leadership in medical education, and was inducted to the UCSD Gold Humanism Honor Society
This week, Betial and colleagues published :
An Abolitionist Approach to Antiracist Medical Education | Journal of Ethics | American Medical Association (ama-assn.org)
This article highlights a medical student-led antiracist curricular effort that moves beyond a biomedical model and uses abolition as the guiding framework in the creation process, the content itself, and iterative reflection through further study and dissemination.
Please join us in congratulating Betial, and in sharing our appreciation for the transformational changes she has implemented in health equity centered medical education and community service