This concentration seeks to enrich medical education by enhancing students’ understanding of health care disparities in American society. Students will study the characteristics of disadvantaged US populations and investigate historic and current barriers to health and healthcare. Students will identify and examine the social determinants of health as well as analyze and evaluate the health care delivery system in the US and other relevant international health care systems. Health Disparity leaders assist students with participation in activities intended to mitigate disparities through research, volunteering, community interventions, and peer education.

Curriculum

Students attend monthly journal club meetings which involve group readings, guest lecturers, student presentations, and field visits to various community sites. Topics covered in the meetings include, but are not limited to: addressing stigma, inequalities in healthcare as they relate to gender identity, and principles in ethical care of underserved populations. Students are required to complete a Capstone Project for this concentration relating to health disparities. It may be original research, a service project, advocacy, or an intervention addressing a health disparity/inequity at the individual, institutional and/or health system levels. Students in this concentration may preference their DCE (Doctoring Clinical Experience) during years 1 and 2 in sites serving the medically needy.

Opportunities

●        Exposure to advocates, community leaders, and academicians addressing subjects based on student interest, current events, and ongoing research.

●        Open discussions of actions that can be taken to reduce health disparities

●        Sharing of personal experience that help describe health disparities and opportunities for improvement

●        Learning about the impact of integrated health care that addresses many social determinants of health including mental health, social circumstance and medical conditions

●        Flexibility to address current events related to health disparities

Examples of Student Scholarly Work

“Quality improvement on vaccination barriers at BRIDGE clinic: how to better prevent and protect”  

“Evaluating Impact of Dental Varnish Program in Jarabocoa, Dominican Republic”  

“Water, sanitation, and hygiene in a semi-rural community of Nicaragua”  

“Assessing the burden of chronic disease (ABCD) among the uninsured of Tampa Bay: judeo Christian clinic”

Faculty Leadership

Gwendolyn (Tina) Clayton, MD
Anna Maynard Wenders, MPH, CHES
Daniel Haight, MD
Shirley Smith, MA
Jennifer Costa, MD