Not Another Lecture on SDoH: Taking Health Equity and Advocacy (HEA) Out of the Classroom to Create an Authentic Clinical Experience

Course Overview

Many medical schools have didactic and small group sessions teaching factors that affect individual, community and global health. Students often lament having to attend talks on HEA, where they learn about disparities and their underlying causes, but often do not see structured, practical approaches to addressing them modeled in the clinical realm. Educators may wonder how to integrate HEA into the clinical context. We aim to demonstrate how to create an authentic experience where trainees identify and address factors leading to disparities. In a case conference setting, our students present a patient from their longitudinal clinic with a focus on social risk factors. We will review our approach to identify and mitigate social risk factors. We will share how trainees link their patients to resources to treat social determinants in a clinically relevant and patient-centered manner. We will show how to guide students in reflection on their individual patient while considering system level advocacy to achieve population health equity. Furthermore, we will show how students can bring their case back to junior teammates at their longitudinal clinic and teach how equity is addressed in the various clinical environments. We will review our HEA case conference objectives, detailed students' guide and our assessment grid. We will share students' reflections on this experience. Attendees will see a case in action, practice moderating a case and reflect on the challenges students face when caring for vulnerable patients. Attendees will gain knowledge and tools to develop a case conference series at their own institution.

Learning Objectives

Learn how to alter a morning report style case conference into an HEA session
Practice creating an authentic experience for your trainees and allow them to use these skills with future patients.
Reflect on challenges for our patients and trainees in caring for vulnerable patients.

Speakers

Jennifer Bierman MD
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Maria Theodorou MD
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Mita Sanghavi Goel, MD, MPH
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Additional Information

Year Published: 2022 - AIMW