With a unique lens and growing knowledge base, resident physicians can be empowered to create a more equitable system of care. 

An e-learning course titled “Basics of Health Equity for GME” is a tool that aims to help residents grow their knowledge base and encourages further investigation of how systemic racism impacts health care. 

It is just one of the AMA GME Competency Education Program offerings, which include more than 50 courses that residents can access online through their residency program’s subscription, on their own schedules. The program also features six faculty development courses.

The AMA GME Competency Education Program delivers education to help institutions more easily meet Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education common program requirements. Modules cover five of the six topics—patient care, practice-based learning and improvement, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, and system-based practice—within the core competency requirements. The sixth requirement, medical knowledge, is one that is typically addressed during clinical education.

Among the program’s experts are several who contributed to the AMA’s Health Systems Science textbook, which draws insights from faculty at medical schools that are part of the Association’s ChangeMedEd initiative. 

Current program subscribers have access to award-winning online education designed for residents on the go. It’s easy to use and saves time with simple tracking and reporting tools for administrators. Learn more.

The course gives residents context on how systems of care can be rife with bias, from interpersonal interactions through structural inequities. It also offers comprehensive terminology to aid understanding and effect change. 

“In order to advance equity, and health equity specifically, it’s critical that we begin with a shared understanding of the foundational concepts and terms,” said Emily Cleveland Manchanda, MD, MPH, an emergency physician who directs social justice education and implementation at the AMA. 

“Otherwise, we end up with people misconstruing, misunderstanding and getting defensive about issues that are raised to advance equity. If someone is trying to improve health outcomes by addressing racial inequities, and if the issue is framed as structural racism, folks may not have a grasp of that concept,” added Dr. Cleveland Manchanda.

“If they don’t understand what structural racism means, some people may think they’re being called a racist, rather than talking about systemic issues that shape differential opportunities for health,” she said.

The module uses a fictional family from Flint, Michigan, to exemplify barriers people from marginalized communities experience in the health care system. With its yearslong water crisis, Flint is a glaring example of the impact structural racism can have on an entire population. 

Flint is an example that resonates, but it’s far from alone. As an emergency physician at a safety-net hospital in Boston, Dr. Cleveland Manchanda works with residents who are often on the front lines confronting inequities. These lessons, she said, can take a toll. Having an understanding of what causes systems-level failures and working to address them can have value beyond one-on-one patient interactions. 

“Every physician has to decide for themselves what role they want to play in the health system,” she said. “It’s certainly an individual decision how and where you will use your power, but if you are proximate to the harms that are experienced by so many in our country, working to address those harms and advance health justice is incredibly gratifying and can be lifesaving for us as physicians too. ”

Learn more about the AMA Center for Health Equity and the AMA’s strategic plan to embed racial justice and advance health equity.

Dive deeper:

• New AMA resource helps overstretched GME program directors
• Time to go beyond talk to advance health equity with action
• Why coordinated action is needed to advance health equity 

Subscribe and thrive in residency

Get tips and insider advice from the AMA on navigating and making the most of medical residency—delivered to your inbox.

Subscribe Now

The “Basics of Health Equity for GME” course covers several foundational topics, including the contrast between equity and equality, the four levels of racism and the relationship between moving upstream and health equity. 

“If residents can learn from this module—can internalize and understand at a more intuitive level the terminology that we are using to describe the ways racism and other systems of oppression operate—that is the goal of this course,” Dr. Cleveland Manchanda said.

“It’s important for us to give residents the tools to name the problems they see around them,” she added. “In the same way we give them the tools to name health conditions, we need to give them the tools to identify, and then address, systems that create inequities and the systems of suffering our patients face.”

Residency program directors have access to dashboards and reports that provide a view of progress at the program and institution levels. In addition, customizable reports make it easy to track learner performance and demonstrate compliance for accreditation.

The AMA GME Competency Education Program covers topics including well-being, QI and patient safety, residents as teachers, navigating health systems, health equity, professionalism and faculty development. Schedule a meeting to discuss your organization’s needs.