DEI Session Features Student-Created Medical School Course to Address Health Care Inequities
Loma Linda University Health’s Dr. Juan Carlos Belliard (from left), Simone DeShields and Dr. Elisha Webster shared experiences educating medical students on racial disparities at May 6’s HASC DEI Roundtable.
HASC invites members to view a May 6 session featuring a dynamic trio from the Loma Linda University Health Institute for Community Partnerships (LLUH-ICP) who discuss addressing health care inequities. Dr. Juan Carlos Belliard, assistant vice president for community partnerships and professor of global health, Simone DeShields, fourth-year medical and population health student, and Dr. Elisha Webster, family medicine physician and preventive medicine resident, participated in the panel.
Click here to view the recorded session. The session slide decks are available here (Belliard) and here (DeShields and Webster).
In this session, Belliard provides insights into LLUH-ICP’s work in the community during the pandemic and beyond. He also showcases the stellar work of his two colleagues, DeShields and Webster, who created an interactive, discussion-based course offered to Loma Linda University medical school fourth-year medical students, titled “Racism as a Public Health Crisis.” The course focuses on three areas – self-awareness, society and health care in the U.S., to educate medical students on ways to “learn and do.” They hope, through this course, to help create a meaningful and lasting impact in their future medical practices.
The May 6 session explores the limited volume of existing health equity coursework in medical schools. According to one recent survey, only about 40 percent of medical schools currently offer such coursework, Webster relates.
Exploring these issues can be challenging for students and faculty alike, and requires an environment of mutual respect, she adds.
“We wanted to make sure we had a very safe environment where we could have responsible and productive discussions on race,” Webster says.
Learn more about HASC’s DEI initiative on the association’s webpage here.
With questions, please contact HASC Workforce Development Program Manager Lisa Mitchell.
Contact:
Lisa Mitchell
(213) 538-0722
lmitchell@hasc.org