IDM 560 - Health in The Neighborhood

Health inequities and disparities between Black and White Americans are complex with many relevant factors that include: - The impact of policies based on systemic structural racism, such as underdeveloped segregated neighborhoods that affect the quality of the physical environment, employment opportunities, and convenient access to superior schools, nutritious foods, and healthcare facilities. - Doctors¿ lack of knowledge and familiarity with life and culture in Black underdeveloped communities, which may limit rapport and treatment planning. - Healthcare workers¿ implicit and explicit biases toward Black patients that influence treatment recommendations. Health In The Neighborhood is an electronic/experiential pre-clinical medical school elective offered on Wednesday afternoons during the spring semester. The course is composed of on-line discussions with students and faculty, sessions in The Martin Luther King Neighborhood, and class discussions at the medical school. Course work and class time is designed to require a usual time commitment of three hours per week. Students will keep reflective on-line logs of their weekly experiences. This is a pass/fail course. There are no exams. At the conclusion of the course, students will have an understanding of the different ways that social forces operate within the country, region, and the profession to sustain health inequities, and disparities, and have thought about methods to counter these trends.

Credits: 2 - 4