American Medical Student Association

Overview

AMSA Academy is a training ground for physician leaders, established by and for students. The Academy strives to empower medical students to affect change in medicine. Combining didactics with experiential learning, AMSA Academy courses take medical and premedical students through the core competences of leadership and project implementations, while building on key principles of important topics in medicine.

Each program fosters the value that health care must be patient-centered, effective, efficient, safe, equitable, and timely, as identified by the Institute of Medicine. We see our mission as training physician leaders in order to transform the face of medicine.

Working through Sir Michael Marmot’s The Status Syndrome, the Health Equity Scholars program explores being active within the context of a systems-oriented approach to enhancing people’s status to address health inequalities and injustices in the United States and abroad. The program is based on the principle that differences in status generate differences in health outcomes, unlike the conventional view of health disparities that points the finger at access and personal behavior. Along with building an argument for this perspective, the Program will provide Scholars with practical skills and tools to educate their peers and organize initiatives to address health disparities in their communities.

Program Structure

The Health Equity Scholars Program includes four main components:

• Scholars are given guided readings to discuss with fellow Scholars. These readings not only include sections from The Status Syndrome, but also scholarly journal articles, government reports, and other resourceful materials applicable to health equity.
• Scholars participate in regular conference calls/webinars with each other and with health equity and health disparities field experts from around the country.
• Scholars participate in an online community allowing them to discuss readings, conferences calls, and collaborate on individual projects.
• Scholars organize and implement projects in their local chapters and communities using the perspectives, skills, and tools gained from the Program.

Each webinar will address 2-3 chapters from Michael Marmot’s The Status Syndrome. Didactic sessions with an expert on a health equity topic will be interspersed, as well a health project design seminar.

Each scholar or pair of scholars will work on a final project, which will need to be practical and applicable to the clinical setting or could be used by AMSA chapters. Final projects will be presented at the AMSA National Convention in March 2013 and posted on the AMSA website.

Also, check out the HESP Monthly Syllabus on the right-hand sidebar.

Tentative Schedule

The Health Equity Scholars Program will run from October 2012 to February 2013. Consisting of a total of 10 sessions, we will meet biweekly from October 2, with the exception of one webinar each in November and December 2012.

We anticipate the following schedule: each webinar will consist of a group discussion of the major points from the readings or a didactic session with an expert on the topic, along with various video clips/articles/etc.

Participant Expectations

Medical, premedical, and public health students who are interested in topics related to health disparities, public health, and addressing the underlying causes of inequalities in health are encouraged to apply. Each Health Equity Scholar must be a member of AMSA at the start of the program. Information about registration and membership is available here.

In order for a participant to effective learn and apply the skills presented in this program, it is crucial that each participant is present for all aspects of the program.

The expectation is that each participant will complete all the mandatory assigned readings before the session, participate in an hour to hour and a half long group book discussions, and attend all the webinars. In total, we expect that each month will require approximately 4 hours of webinar time plus outside preparation time. Participants will also be expected to come up with some sort of project related to health equity (more details to come). Participants are encouraged to attend the AMSA National Conference in March 2013 for a program graduation (and also for the conference!), but this is not an absolute requirement to participate in the program.

Application Process

• Application deadline: September 14, 2012 at 11:59pm ET
• 20 applicants will be selected and informed by September 21, 2012
• Please feel free to contact Diana and Matthew with questions about the program at hesp@amsa.org.

Tuition

• Participation fee is $30.