How Do Curricula for Medical Students and Physician Learners Address the Social Determinants of Health? A Scoping Review.

PURPOSE: Curricula about social determinants (drivers) of health (SDOH) are becoming more common in medical education, reflecting increasing expectations from payers and accreditors that health care systems do more to address health-related social needs and close pervasive health equity gaps. Few previous reviews have addressed the content of SDOH-related curricula. This review examines the scope and focus of medical education on SDOH and adjacent concepts. METHOD: The authors screened 2,442 articles describing curricula delivered in undergraduate, graduate, and continuing medical education settings between 2010 and 2023 using PubMed and 2 field-specific databases, yielding 289 articles. Data on course duration, pedagogic approach, assessment methods, and curricular content were extracted and analyzed. Curricular content was categorized using the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine's (NASEM's) 5As framework, which recommends 5 key activities health care can undertake to mitigate social risk (awareness, adjustment, assistance, alignment, and advocacy). RESULTS: A total of 289 articles were included in this review. Curricula covering SDOH-related concepts have increased over time. Of the included articles, 190 (65.7%) referenced at least 1 of NASEM's 5 key activities. Training on social risk screening and other awareness activities were noted most frequently (123 [42.6%]), followed by curricula on helping patients get social care (assistance; 86 [29.8%]) and providing social risk-adjusted health care (adjustment; 81 [28.0%]). Curricula on system- and policy-level activities, including alignment of health care and social care organizations (alignment), and advocacy (advocacy) were described less frequently (43 [14.9%] and 49 [17.0%], respectively). Ninety-four articles (32.5%) referenced only general information about SDOH without describing specific actions to adjust care or reduce social adversity. CONCLUSIONS: NASEM's 5As framework provides a useful construct for characterizing SDOH-related curricula. Medical educators should teach not only the prevalence and pathophysiology of SDOH but also what physicians can do to address these factors.

How a Team Effectiveness Approach to Health Systems Science Can Illuminate Undergraduate Medical Education Outcomes.

ABSTRACT: Health care delivery requires physicians to operate in teams to successfully navigate complexity in caring for patients and communities. The importance of training physicians early in core concepts of working in teams (i.e., "teaming") has long been established. Over the past decade, however, little evidence of team effectiveness training for medical students has been available. The recent introduction of health systems science as a third pillar of medical education provides an opportunity to teach and prepare students to work in teams and achieve related core competencies across the medical education continuum and health care delivery settings. Although educators and health care system leaders have emphasized the teaching and learning of team-based care, conceptual models and evidence that inform effective teaming within all aspects of undergraduate medical education (including classroom, clinical, and community settings) are needed to advance the science regarding learning and working in teams. Anchoring teaming through the core foundational theory of team effectiveness and its operational components could catalyze the empirical study of medical student teams, uncover modifiable factors that lead to the evidence for improved student learning, and improve the link among competency-based assessments between undergraduate medical education and graduate medical education. In this article, authors articulate several implications for medical schools through 5 conceptual areas: admissions, the design and teaching of team effectiveness in health systems science curricula, the related competency-based assessments, and course and program evaluations. The authors then discuss the relevance of the measurable components and intended outcomes to team effectiveness in undergraduate medical education as critical to successfully prepare students for teaming in clerkships and eventually residency and clinical practice.

Stressors and Silver Linings during COVID-19: Implications for Supporting Families with Young Children in a Post-Pandemic World.

OBJECTIVES: To better understand impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic and social disruptions on families, we analyzed qualitative data capturing perspectives from parents of young children. METHODS: This study analyzes interviews of parents of children aged 1-3.5 years at enrollment, recruited from four primary care systems serving mainly lower-income Hispanic families in Los Angeles, California. Interviews were conducted over 15 months beginning September 2020. Analyses focused on the open-ended question: Please describe in your own words how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected you and your family. We used iterative, multi-step processes to identify emergent qualitative themes. RESULTS: A total of 460 parent responses were collected and coded. Key themes and subthemes were tested for interrater reliability, with Kappa ranging from 0.74 to 0.91. Thematic analysis revealed two groups of responses, one emphasizing stress and one emphasizing "silver linings." Parents cited a range of stressors, from fear of COVID-19 to social isolation. Those emphasizing "silver linings" also referenced formal or informal supports - especially government/community assistance programs and childcare access - that enabled stronger family ties and positive lifestyle modifications. CONCLUSIONS FOR PRACTICE: Experiences of families with young children during COVID-19 were not uniform. Economic stability and reliable childcare may be critical mediators of family stress. Results affirm that the pandemic's impacts were distributed through channels largely built on, and possibly exacerbating, existing disparities. For lower-income families with young children, funding for public and private programs that target economic stability and childcare assistance may merit prioritization in future socio-economic disruptions.

Transcriptional regulation of wound suberin deposition in potato cultivars with differential wound healing capacity.

Wounding during mechanical harvesting and post-harvest handling results in tuber desiccation and provides an entry point for pathogens resulting in substantial post​-harvest crop losses. Poor wound healing is a major culprit of these losses. Wound tissue in potato (Solanum tuberosum) tubers, and all higher plants, is composed of a large proportion of suberin that is deposited in a specialized tissue called the wound periderm. However, the genetic regulatory pathway controlling wound-induced suberization remains unknown. Here, we implicate two potato transcription factors, StMYB102 (PGSC0003DMG400011250) and StMYB74 (PGSC0003DMG400022399), as regulators of wound suberin biosynthesis and deposition. Using targeted metabolomics and transcript profiling from the wound healing tissues of two commercial potato cultivars, as well as heterologous expression, we provide evidence for the molecular-genetic basis of the differential wound suberization capacities of different potato cultivars. Our results suggest that (i) the export of suberin from the cytosol to the apoplast and ligno-suberin deposition may be limiting factors for wound suberization, (ii) StMYB74 and StMYB102 are important regulators of the wound suberization process in tubers, and (iii) polymorphisms in StMYB102 may influence cultivar-specific wound suberization capacity. These results represent an important step in understanding the regulated biosynthesis and deposition of wound suberin and provide a practical foundation for targeted breeding approaches aimed at improving potato tuber storage life.