Approximately 200 people, including students from every medical school in the state, came to WMed earlier this summer for a health equity summit at the W.E. Upjohn M.D. Campus.
“We were excited to hear about the projects that other students were working on at medical schools, pharmacy schools and universities across the state,” said third-year students Gina Bravata and Ryan D’Mello, who were pivotal in organizing the June 30 event. “We were also happy to see the diversity of attendees as the event was attended by representatives from community organizations, community members, healthcare providers, undergraduate students, pharmacy students and medical students.”
The summit, which served as a gathering point for attendees to share ideas on how to promote health equity and address health inequity, was part of an ongoing project – “Addressing Race-based Health Inequity through Anti-Racism and Implicit Bias Training for Future Healthcare Providers” – that Bravata and D’Mello took part in through a regional fellowship with the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College. Bravata and D’Mello worked with several other WMed students and Dr. Cheryl Dickson, the medical school’s associate dean for Health Equity and Community Affairs, to make the summit a reality.
The event featured several presentations, including one by Bravata and D’Mello about their multi-pronged project, which began in November 2017. There was a community panel featuring Cradle Kalamazoo and Michael Evans, executive director of the Kalamazoo Literacy Council, as well as interprofessional tabletop conversations, a community organization expo fair and TedTalk-style presentations from students and student organizations from across the state of Michigan, and student poster presentations.
Given the success of the event, Bravata and D’Mello said planning for next year’s event is already underway with hopes that the summit will become an annual event at the medical school.
“There was an overwhelming interest in the summit happening annually,” Bravata and D’Mello said. “Attendees said they loved the opportunity to hear about the projects going on in our community, as well as the projects students were working on across the state … There was a sense of enthusiasm throughout the day that was infectious.”
Bravata and D’Mello said they’ve also been buoyed by the success and collaboration they’ve experienced through their work through the regional fellowship with the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at K-College.
The project included five objectives, all of which have been accomplished over the last nine months. The objectives were the incorporation of more education and engagement at WMed about the social determinants of health, race and implicit bias; the hosting of at least two community events at the medical school as a way of growing WMed’s role as a resource for health equity; collaboration with medical students at the state and national level to improve policies about implicit bias and the importance of including training on racism and implicit bias in medical school education; the creation of a network of medical schools from across the country with a shared interest in pushing initiatives to address implicit bias and structural racism, and the hosting of the one-day summit at WMed.
“Not only was a path for a longitudinal elective on health equity created at WMed, and a curriculum designed, but the elective class filled up completely and student feedback was very positive,” Bravata and D’Mello said. “We are currently working on a research project designed to measure the long-term effectiveness of the elective, and will be working with ERACCE (Eliminating Racism & Creating/Celebrating Equity) and some of the students from this past elective cohort to find ways in which we can further improve the elective curriculum and experience. Students who are interested in this elective can find more information in the elective handbook and attend an information session in December before the elective sign-up period opens.
“We assembled a group of medical students interested in progressing health equity from a policy perspective, and successfully wrote and introduced resolutions to both the American Medical Association and Michigan State Medical Society in favor of the inclusions of implicit bias education in medical school curriculum, which successfully passed in both bodies,” Bravata and D’Mello added.
Additionally, Bravata and D’Mello said they were invited in April to share their work on the project at the Latino Medical Student Association National Conference. They’ve also been invited to host a workshop on medical student advocacy in Washington, D.C. in October and they will be presenting their research findings regarding the elective course at WMed in November at the American Public Health Association Conference.
“We are excited to have these opportunities to continue meeting other medical students and health professionals with a passion in health equity, and to continue building our national network, which has proved to be crucial in allowing us to share ideas and collaborate on projects with others across the country,” Bravata and D’Mello said.
They are excited to carry this project forward with the launch of their new initiative: Association of Medical Students for Equity and Justice (AMSEJ). For more information about this association and to receive their quarterly newsletter, which features medical students doing health equity work across the country, visit www.amsej.org.
In reflecting on the summit in June, Bravata said they were thankful to the numerous individuals and organizations that help make the summit a success. That list includes the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, members of the Health Equity Planning Committee at WMed, ERACCE, Dr. Dickson, Mia Henry and WMed student volunteers, among many others.
Anyone interested in being involved in planning of next year's summit can contact Gina Bravata and D’Mello at gina.bravata@wmed.edu and ryan.dmello@wmed.edu. For more pictures from the summit click here.