Communication training is inadequate: the role of deception, non-verbal communication, and cultural proficiency.

In this commentary, we argue that the limited experiential exposure of medical students to different cultures makes the instruction devoted to communication skills inadequate. The relationship of these dynamics to honesty in clinical encounters is explored. Absent significant experiential exposure to differing group cultures to counter the natural tendency to favor one's own, discrimination prevails. Knowledge or awareness of cultural differences does not necessarily equate to communication proficiency. Critically, interactions based on lived experience offer a deeper knowledge and understanding of culturally meaningful nuances than that imparted through other formats. Medical students' lack of experiential exposure to different cultures results in communication miscues. When the stakes are high, people detect those miscues diminishing trust in the doctor-patient relationship. Greater experiential cultural exposure will enhance the facility and use of culturally specific communication cues. At its core, the requisite transformation will require medical students to adapt to other cultures and greater representation by marginalized and stigmatized populations not only among the studentry but staff and faculty. The time is now to ensure that the physicians we produce can care for all Americans. What cannot be taught must be identified by the selection process. Competence with half the population is a failure for American medicine.

The dynamics of poverty, educational attainment, and the children of the disadvantaged entering medical school.

Approximately one-third of the US population lives at or near the poverty line; however, this group makes up less than 7% of the incoming medical students. In the United Kingdom, the ratio of those of the highest social stratum is 30 times greater than those of the lowest to receive admission to medical school. In an effort to address health disparities and improve patient care, the authors argue that significant barriers must be overcome for the children of the disadvantaged to gain admission to medical school. Poverty is intergenerational and multidimensional. Familial wealth affects opportunities and educational attainment, starting when children are young and compounding as they get older. In addition, structural and other barriers exist to these students pursuing higher education, such as the realities of financial aid and the shadow of debt. Yet the medical education community can take steps to better support the children of the disadvantaged throughout their education, so they are able to reach medical school. If educators value the viewpoints and life experiences of diverse students enriching the learning environment, they must acknowledge the unique contributions that the children of the disadvantaged bring and work to increase their representation in medical schools and the physician workforce. We describe who the disadvantaged are contrasted with the metrics used by medical school admissions to identify them. The consequences of multiple facets of poverty on educational attainment are explored, including its interaction with other social identities, inter-generational impacts, and the importance of wealth versus annual income. Structural barriers to admission are reviewed. Given the multi-dimensional and cumulative nature of poverty, we conclude that absent significant and sustained intervention, medical school applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds will remain few and workforce issues affecting the care patients receive will not be resolved. The role of physicians and medical schools and advocating for necessary societal changes to alleviate this dynamic are highlighted.

Bridging the gap between physician and medical student education: using the Train the Trainer model to improve cultural competence training in the clerkship years of medical school.

Cultural competence (CC) training has become a required part of medical education to create future physicians dedicated to decreasing health disparities. However, current training seems to be inadequate as research has demonstrated gaps between CC training and clinical behaviors of students. One aspect that is potentially contributing to this gap is the lack of physician education of CC. Without it being something not only taught in the classroom, but also modeled and taught in the clinical setting, CC will continue to be a theoretical concept instead of a skill set that changes the way that future physicians interact with patients and make decisions about patient care. To change this, we propose the implementation of a Train the Trainer model in which the preclinical professor in charge of CC education trains Clerkship and Residency Directors who then can train and supervise the physicians and residents in their departments on CC to better implement it into the formal and informal curriculum of clerkships.

Creating physicians of the 21st century: assessment of the clinical years.

Medical education has been under a constant state of revision for the past several years. The overarching theme of the curriculum revisions for medical schools across the USA has been creating better physicians for the 21st century, with the same end result: graduating medical students at the optimal performance level when entering residency. We propose a robust, thorough assessment process that will address the needs of clerkships, residents, students, and, most importantly, medical schools to best measure and improve clinical reasoning skills that are required for the learning outcomes of our future physicians. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) evaluates and accredits medical school graduates based on competency-based outcomes and the assessment of specialty-specific milestones; however, there is some evidence that medical school graduates do not consistently meet the Level 1 milestones prior to entering/beginning residency, thus starting their internship year underprepared and overwhelmed. Medical schools should take on the responsibility to provide competency-based assessments for their students during the clinical years. These assessments should be geared toward preparing them with the cognitive competencies and skills needed to successfully transition to residency. Then, medical schools can produce students who will ultimately be prepared for transition to their residency programs to provide quality care.

Addressing the healthcare needs of older Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender patients in medical school curricula: a call to action.

Medical students matriculating in the coming years will be faced with treating an expansive increase in the population of older lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) patients. While these patients face healthcare concerns similar to their non-LGBT aging peers, the older LGBT community has distinct healthcare needs and faces well-documented healthcare disparities. In order to reduce these healthcare barriers, medical school curricula must prepare and educate future physicians to treat this population while providing high quality, culturally-competent care. This article addresses some of the unique healthcare needs of the aging LGBT population with an emphasis on social concerns and healthcare disparities. It provides additional curricular recommendations to aid in the progressive augmentation of medical school curricula. ABBREVIATIONS: Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME); LGBT: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender.

Curricular integration of social medicine: a prospective for medical educators.

In the United States, the health of a community falls on a continuum ranging from healthy to unhealthy and fluctuates based on several variables. Research policy and public health practice literature report substantial disparities in life expectancy, morbidity, risk factors, and quality of life, as well as persistence of these disparities among segments of the population. One such way to close this gap is to streamline medical education to better prepare our future physicians for our patients in underserved communities. Medical schools have the potential to close the gap when training future physicians by providing them with the principles of social medicine that can contribute to the reduction of health disparities. Curriculum reform and systematic formative assessment and evaluative measures can be developed to match social medicine and health disparities curricula for individual medical schools, thus assuring that future physicians are being properly prepared for residency and the workforce to decrease health inequities in the United States. We propose that curriculum reform includes an ongoing social medicine component for medical students. Continued exposure, practice, and education related to social medicine across medical school will enhance the awareness and knowledge for our students. This will result in better preparation for the zero mile stone residency set forth by the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education and will eventually lead to the outcome of higher quality physicians in the United States to treat diverse populations.

Reducing health disparities in underserved communities via interprofessional collaboration across health care professions.

Health disparities can negatively impact subsets of the population who have systematically experienced greater socioeconomic obstacles to health. Health disparities are pervasive across the United States and no single health care profession can tackle this national crisis alone. It is essential that all health care providers work collaboratively toward the overarching goal of systematically closing the health disparities gap. Interprofessional collaboration is the foundation needed for health care providers to support patient needs and reduce health disparities in public health. Let us reach across the silos we work within and collaborate with our colleagues. Stand up and begin thinking about our communities, our patients, and the future overall health status of the population for the United States.

Interprofessional education as a method to address health needs in a Hispanic community setting: A pilot study.

The Hispanic population in and around Richmond, Virginia, USA, has grown rapidly since 2000. The Richmond City Latino Needs Assessment emphasized this growth and also reported concerns regarding healthcare access. Schools of medicine, pharmacy, and nursing at Virginia Commonwealth University have partnered together with community organizations to develop and implement an interprofessional student service learning pilot program to meet community needs and provide an opportunity for enhanced learning. Community events allowed students to work on interprofessional teams to provide healthcare screenings and education to the Hispanic community. The program was evaluated by the use of a community service survey. Results indicated improved perceptions of student comfort with working with diverse patients, working on teams, and patient-centered care, as well as statistically significant improvements in student understanding of health care access and barriers, community needs, and social determinants of health. Results suggest that this community-based service-learning interprofessional experience was critical in student learning.

Health disparities and underserved populations: a potential solution, medical school partnerships with free clinics to improve curriculum.

Health-care educators share the social responsibility to teach medical students about social determinants of health and health-care disparities and subsequently to encourage medical students to pursue residencies in primary care and medical practice in underserved communities. Free clinics provide care to underserved communities, yet collaborative partnerships with such organizations remain largely untapped by medical schools. Free clinics and medical schools in 10 US states demonstrate that such partnerships are geographically feasible and have the potential to mutually benefit both organizational types. As supported by prior research, students exposed to underserved populations may be more likely to pursue primary care fields and practice in underserved communities, improving health-care infrastructure.

Variability in structure of university pulmonary/critical care fellowships and retention of fellows in academic medicine.

INTRODUCTION: Individual fellowship programs are challenged to find a format of training that not only meets the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education requirements, but also grooms fellows to be trusted clinicians, and encourages them to enter academic careers. This study was undertaken as part of an internal effort to evaluate and revise the program structure of the pulmonary/critical care medicine fellowship at the Medical University of South Carolina. Our objectives were to characterize variation in the training structure and specifically research opportunities of university pulmonary/critical care medicine fellowship programs, and to identify factors associated with fellow retention in academic medicine and research. METHODS: A 30-item survey was developed through rigorous internal review and was administered via email. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach's alpha, correlations, Wilcoxon sign-rank test, and ANOVA were carried out. RESULTS: We had a response rate of 52%. Program directors reported that, within the past 5 years, 38% of their fellows remained in academic medicine and 20% remained in academics with significant research focus. We found a statistically significant association between obtaining a master's degree and remaining in academics (r = 0.559; P < 0.008). The survey also revealed statistically significant relationships between scholarly requirements (grant proposals, peer-reviewed original research projects) and the percent of fellows who graduated and remained in academics. CONCLUSIONS: This survey offers some insights that may be useful to fellowship program directors. In particular, advanced education in research and maximizing scholarly activities might be associated with increased academic retention among fellowship trainees.

Using Health Information Technology to Reach Patients in Underserved Communities: A Pilot Study to Help Close the Gap With Health Disparities.

INTRODUCTION: In the current era of medical education and curriculum reform, medical schools across the United States are launching innovative approaches to teaching students in order to improve patient outcomes and increase patient safety. One such innovation is the use information technology (IT) that can be used to disseminate health information, especially for patients with limited access to care. Strategies for using health IT to enhance communication between providers and patients in low-income communities can be incorporated into undergraduate medical education (UME) curriculum. METHODS: A pilot study was conducted to determine if IT could serve as an effective means of communication with patients at a free clinic where 100% of the patients are uninsured; the clinic is located in an urban setting and primarily serves Latinos, the working poor, and the homeless. An anonymous survey was administered to patients to assess rates of IT ownership, general IT use, and IT use for health and medical information. RESULTS: The majority of study participants owned a cell phone (92%); one-third used their cell phone to access health or medical information (38%). Most study participants reported using the Internet (72%), and two-thirds had used the Internet to obtain health and medical information (64%). CONCLUSION: Given the difficulties faced by low income and medically underserved communities in accessing healthcare services, the use of IT tools may improve their' access to health information in ways that could enhance patient knowledge and self-management, and perhaps positively impact health outcomes. Therefore, it is essential to incorporate use of IT tools in training for medical students and residents to enhance communication with patients in underserved communities.

Medical interpreters: improvements to address access, equity, and quality of care for limited-English-proficient patients.

Limited-English-proficient (LEP) patients in the United States experience a variety of health care disparities associated with language barriers, including reduced clinical encounter time and substandard medical treatment compared with their English-speaking counterparts. In most current U.S. health care settings, interpretation services are provided by personnel ranging from employed professional interpreters to untrained, ad hoc interpreters such as friends, family, or medical staff. Studies have demonstrated that untrained individuals commit many interpretation errors that may critically compromise patient safety and ultimately prove to be life-threatening. Despite documented risks, the U.S. health care system lacks a required standardized certification for medical interpreters. The authors propose that the standardization of medical interpreter training and certification would substantially reduce the barriers to equitable care experienced by LEP patients in the U.S. health care system, including the occurrence of preventable clinical errors. Recent efforts of the U.S. federal court system are cited as a successful and realistic example of how these goals may be achieved. As guided by the evolution of the federal court interpreting certification program, subsequent research will be required to demonstrate the improvements and challenges that would result from national certification standards and policy for medical interpreters. Research should examine cost-effectiveness and ensure that certified interpreting services are appropriately used by health care practitioners. Ongoing commitment is required from lawmakers, health care providers, and researchers to remove barriers to care and to demand that equity remain a consistent goal of our health care system.

Addressing health care disparities and access to dental care while improving education: schools of dentistry and federally qualified health centers.

Oral health disparities in the United States are a result of economic, educational, and social barriers faced by vulnerable and underserved individuals. The oral health care infrastructure is continuously challenged to provide access to quality care with a shortage of dental professionals and expanding oral health disparities. Federally qualified health centers (FQHC) provide oral health care in underserved communities, while schools of dentistry strive to provide students and residents with experience in underserved communities to address access to care issues and produce oral health professionals who will practice in these communities. Formal partnerships between these organizations have the potential to address oral health disparities, access to dental care and improve dental education and training. Utilizing ArcGIS (ArcMAP) software, dental schools and FQHC services sites located in the continental United States were geocoded to demonstrate geographic feasibility: on average, dental schools are within 10 miles of 34 FQHC service sites.

Infant mortality: a call to action overcoming health disparities in the United States.

Among all of the industrialized countries, the United States has the highest infant mortality rate. Racial and ethnic disparities continue to plague the United States with a disproportionally high rate of infant death. Furthermore, racial disparities among infant and neonatal mortality rates remain a chronic health problem in the United States. These risks are based on the geographical variations in mortality and disparities among differences in maternal risk characteristics, low birth weights, and lack of access to health care.

Benefits and barriers among volunteer teaching faculty: comparison between those who precept and those who do not in the core pediatrics clerkship.

BACKGROUND: Community-based outpatient experiences are a core component of the clinical years in medical school. Central to the success of this experience is the recruitment and retention of volunteer faculty from the community. Prior studies have identified reasons why some preceptors volunteer their time however, there is a paucity of data comparing those who volunteer from those who do not. METHODS: A survey was developed following a review of previous studies addressing perceptions of community-based preceptors. A non-parametric, Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare active preceptors (APs) and inactive preceptors (IPs) and all data were analyzed in SPSS 20.0. RESULTS: There was a 28% response rate. Preceptors showed similar demographic characteristics, valued intrinsic over extrinsic benefits, and appreciated Continuing Medical Education (CME)/Maintenance of Certification (MOC) opportunities as the highest extrinsic reward. APs were more likely to also precept at the M1/M2 level and value recognition and faculty development opportunities (p<0.05). IPs denoted time as the most significant barrier and, in comparison to APs, rated financial compensation as more important (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Community preceptors are motivated by intrinsic benefits of teaching. Efforts to recruit should initially focus on promoting awareness of teaching opportunities and offering CME/MOC opportunities. Increasing the pool of preceptors may require financial compensation.

Assessment in undergraduate medical education: a review of course exams.

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study is to describe an approach for evaluating assessments used in the first 2 years of medical school and report the results of applying this method to current first and second year medical student examinations. METHODS: Three faculty members coded all exam questions administered during the first 2 years of medical school. The reviewers discussed and compared the coded exam questions. During the bi-monthly meetings, all differences in coding were resolved with consensus as the final criterion. We applied Moore's framework to assist the review process and to align it with National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) standards. RESULTS: The first and second year medical school examinations had 0% of competence level questions. The majority, more than 50% of test questions, were at the NBME recall level. CONCLUSION: It is essential that multiple-choice questions (MCQs) test the attitudes, skills, knowledge, and competency in medical school. Based on our findings, it is evident that our exams need to be improved to better prepare our medical students for successful completion of NBME step exams.

Health disparities among highly vulnerable populations in the United States: a call to action for medical and oral health care.

Healthcare in the United States (US) is burdened with enormous healthcare disparities associated with a variety of factors including insurance status, income, and race. Highly vulnerable populations, classified as those with complex medical problems and/or social needs, are one of the fastest growing segments within the US. Over a decade ago, the US Surgeon General publically challenged the nation to realize the importance of oral health and its relationship to general health and well-being, yet oral health disparities continue to plague the US healthcare system. Interprofessional education and teamwork has been demonstrated to improve patient outcomes and provide benefits to participating health professionals. We propose the implementation of interprofessional education and teamwork as a solution to meet the increasing oral and systemic healthcare demands of highly vulnerable US populations.