Sixteen Family and Community Medicine team members are implementing crucial knowledge they gained from the 2024 Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) Conference on Medical Student Education in Atlanta. Likewise, attendees from across the country took home key takeaways from faculty, staff and students representing UAB's Department of Family and Community Medicine.
According to the organization's website, STFM is a "national community of academic leaders committed to developing an accomplished family medicine workforce" that advances family medicine and improves health. Its annual conference on medical student education aims to connect family medicine educators, coordinators, administrators, students, residents and community preceptors, offering them resources and guides to mold students into empathetic, proficient physicians. Session topics included competency-based medical education, health equity, retaining community preceptors and innovations in medical education.
Fourteen of the department's conference attendees—including four students—presented on subjects spanning numerous topics. The UAB team led six sessions, presented two posters and hosted a roundtable discussion. While Minakshi Shukla's, M.D., poster, "Gamification To Improve the Family Medicine Rotation Learning Experience," touched on innovation and the incorporation of virtual components into her teaching approach, many of the presentations revolved around the HRSA-funded Comprehensive Urban Underserved Rural Experience (CU²RE) Program.
Student Amiria Blakely, Joseph Coppiano, M.D., Erin DeLaney, M.D., and Jill Marsh's, M.D., "Innovative Longitudinal Medical Student Program," highlights Family and Community Medicine's approach to addressing the state's primary care shortages. Blakely shined, sharing her personal experience in the CU²RE program. As the program progressed, students across three cohorts expressed an increased likelihood to choose primary care, work in Alabama, and work with vulnerable patients.
Presentations like "Interprofessional Speed-Dating: Where You Learn Who They Are AND How They Can Help!" (Kala Dixon, Ph.D., Marsh and Kristina Redd, M.D., former CU²RE student) delved into CU²RE specifics.
"Interprofessional Speed-Dating" detailed Teams Retreats, wherein students from six different health professions engage in fun, interactive activities—according to Marsh—affording them a deeper understanding and appreciation for others' perspectives and roles on the health care team.
"Innovative learning methods, akin to 'interprofessional speed-dating,' serve as an active learning tool for students to enhance cross-communication among diverse health professions within family medicine," explained Dixon, assistant professor and director of the Office of Interprofessional and Continuing Education. "It cultivates team collaboration and equips students for real-world practice, especially among underserved communities beset by social determinants of health; it enables high-quality, patient-centered care."
Besides offering educators innovative teaching techniques, Family and Community Medicine's presentations also advised attendees about effectively incorporating some of CU²RE's most impactful components to bolster their medical student education programs. When it comes to adequately preparing for long-term patient care, DeLaney, Marsh and CU²RE Student Ellie Pitchford presented a session about CU²RE's 10-patient panel. "Longitudinal Medical Student Patient Panels" illustrated the value of mirroring primary care providers’ experience as well as accompanying skills critical to becoming leaders in family medicine. Similarly, Coppiano, CU²RE Student Lauren Huguely and Marsh's presentation, "Outside the Walls: Teaching Equity, Cultural Humility and Social Determinants," shed light on how to develop educational programming addressing crucial considerations that impact health.
Most medical student education revolves around access and quality of clinical care, yet these factors only account for about 20 percent of a patient's health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), between 30 and 55 percent of health outcomes are attributed to Social Determinants of Health (SDH). The WHO asserts appropriately addressing these non-medical factors, like the "conditions in which people are born, grow, work [and live]," is "fundamental for improving health and reducing longstanding [health inequities]." It defines health inequities as "unfair and avoidable differences in health status."
A 2017 U.S. Department of Agriculture report revealed an association between food insecurity and chronic disease. The National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) indicates six in 10 Americans live with at least one chronic disease; plus, the majority of the nation's health care expenditures go towards those living with one or more of them. These diseases are also the leading cause of death and disability in the U.S.
A number of the patients UAB Family and Community Medicine clinicians see have chronic conditions and many department researchers are working on studies that involve these chronic diseases, like diabetes. Department of Family and Community Medicine leaders and educators elevate initiatives that advance students' understanding of inequalities within health care and prioritize educational curricula confronting health disparities and access to care.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) developed a Food is Medicine initiative in collaboration with other federal agencies in 2023, a year after The White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. The conference called for an end to hunger and a decline in chronic disease prevalence in the U.S. by 2030. The program endeavored "to reduce nutrition-related chronic diseases and food insecurity" by "[integrating] consistent access to diet- and nutrition-related resources."
It may have been a motivator for some of the STFM attendees who packed Caroline Cohen's, Ph.D., R.D., L.D., session, "Food Is Medicine: Incorporating Nutrition Into Medical Education." She explained how, though healthy dietary patterns result in a lower risk of cancer, diabetes and heart disease, nutrition-related training in undergraduate medical school curricula is minimal. However, primary care providers are poised to step in, especially in rural areas with limited access to care. Moreover, due to the longitudinal nature of care, these physicians are uniquely positioned to maximize the benefit of nutrition expertise.
"The goal is to build the next generation of physicians' skills and confidence in providing basic nutrition counseling to prevent chronic disease," explained Cohen.
In addition to these sessions, DeLaney and Program Manager Crystal Odom led a morning roundtable discussion, "Preceptor Workforce: How to Recruit and Retain." Increased competition from non-allopathic schools and learners has made recruiting and retaining preceptors more challenging. Attendees squeezed around the table to learn the Department of Family and Community's strategies after it effectively recruited and retained 10 new preceptors willing to take on and mentor student learners.
The Department of Family and Community Medicine team also submitted two posters. Sameera Davuluri, M.D., and Jon Ezell, Ph.D., shared their poster presentation, "CU²RE Longitudinal Primary Care Pre-Medical Program" (CU²RE LP3 Program). It detailed findings from the first two years of the program, which leveraged online learning modules for flipped classroom pedagogy. LP3 sought to increase the preparedness of medically underserved and rural Alabama undergraduate students to successfully enter medical school and pursue a career in primary care.
As faculty, staff and students continue to put their new knowledge into practice, they also prepare for the next Society of Teachers of Family Medicine event. Several will present and even more will attend the organization’s annual conference, coming up May 4-8 in Los Angeles.