Karina Zaveri Whelan, MD, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of General Medicine, is creating a curriculum to enable medical students at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine to implement a health equity-focused improvement project. She gave an update on the project in the video below.
“My goal through this project is not just to change patient outcomes and to change patient care but also to educate students and preceptors about the equity gaps that exist so they know about them and they are empowered to do something.”
In June 2021, the ABIM Foundation – in partnership with the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM), the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), the American College of Physicians (ACP) and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation – awarded a total of $287,500 to 32 projects to rebuild trust and address health care diversity, equity and inclusion in medical education and training.
Through one of the grants, Karina Zaveri Whelan, MD, is creating curriculum to implement a health equity-focused quality improvement project for medical students at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. These students are using a newly-developed health equity dashboard to identify health disparities amongst patients at UNC Health. The resulting data is analyzed and used to implement various quality improvement measures (in collaboration with multidisciplinary teams) that promote health equity across the system, including:
• Colon Cancer Screening Rate
• Cervical Cancer Screening Rate
• Hypertension Control
• Diabetes Control
• Screening & Treatment of Mental Health Disorders
• Screening for Social Determinants of Health
• Vaccination Rates