“Optimal health for all” is how the AMA defines “health equity” and its strategic plan to embed racial justice and advance health equity reveals a commitment as well as a pathway to move the organization and the medical profession toward realizing that vision.
Appropriately, the AMA strategic plan (PDF) begins with an educational section informing physicians and other health professionals on topics important to health equity. In alignment with the strategic plan, the AMA has also developed a groundbreaking series of CME modules focused on the root causes of health inequities, including racism and other structural determinants of health.
The CME modules are designed to equip physicians and other learners with the knowledge of core health equity concepts, empowering them to take action and confront health injustice. The modules are housed on the AMA Ed Hub™, an online platform with high-quality CME and education that supports the professional development needs of physicians and other health professionals. With topics relevant to you, it also offers an easy, streamlined way to find, take, track and report educational activities.
Learn more about AMA CME accreditation.
“The AMA is committed to dismantling health inequities, improving health outcomes and closing gaps in health care,” said AMA President Gerald E. Harmon, MD, a family physician who practices in South Carolina.
“One component of these efforts is the development and dissemination of high-quality education to help embed racial justice and advance equity across health care,” Dr. Harmon added. “This new educational content is extremely beneficial to anyone interested in expanding their knowledge around health equity—as part of the AMA’s ongoing work to reimagine medical education, training and lifelong learning.”
Bridging gaps in physician training
Due to the way in which many faculty and attending physicians have been taught, there is a gap for many teaching physicians concerning equity and justice concepts. The new education content on the AMA Ed Hub, curated by the AMA Center for Health Equity, helps bridge this gap.
“By expanding equity-focused content on the AMA Ed Hub, we encourage everyone to do their part by proactively gaining the knowledge and skills necessary for advancing equity across the health system,” said AMA Chief Health Equity Officer Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH. “Together, we can promote equitable opportunities, resources, conditions, and power for historically marginalized communities—as we strive for optimal health for all.”
Dr. Maybank leads the AMA Center for Health Equity, which focuses on facilitating, strengthening and amplifying the organization’s work to eliminate health inequities. It is also central to operationalizing the organization’s strategic plan to achieve equity and justice in medicine. The Center’s work in creating and developing the equity-related AMA Ed Hub content is an integral part of achieving those ideals.
The inaugural collection of modules will be based on the AMA’s “Prioritizing Equity” video series that highlights how COVID-19 and other determinants of health uniquely affect marginalized communities and public health.
Future modules will cover topics such as structural competency, public health, social sciences, critical race theory and the historical basis of disease.
More equity resources available
The AMA Center for Health Equity is focused on systematically identifying and dismantling the root causes of racism and other forms of structural discrimination that result in the pervasive, preventable and unjust differences in health and outcomes for patients, families and communities.
Through research, collaborations, advocacy and leadership, the AMA supports system-level solutions to identify and address root causes of inequities while elevating their importance to patients, communities and stakeholders.
More resources on confronting health injustice are available at the AMA Ed Hub Health Equity Education Center, including tools centered on the betterment of public health that use a social justice lens to support comprehensive strategies to promote excellence in health for all patients and communities.
Partnering with the AMA in this educational effort are the American College of Radiology, Stanford Health Care, Howard Brown Health, SAGECare, the Fenway Institute and COVID Black.
