CHICAGO — In alignment with its commitment to inform and educate physicians on topics important to health equity, the American Medical Association (AMA) today announced a series of CME and educational activities aimed at addressing the root causes of inequities, including racism and other structural determinants of health. The new content — featured on the AMA Ed Hub™ Health Equity Education Center and curated by the AMA’s Center for Health Equity— will equip physicians and other learners with core health equity concepts needed to support them as they continue to take action and confront health injustice.

“The AMA is committed to dismantling health inequities, improving health outcomes, and closing gaps in health care. 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,” said AMA president Gerald E. Harmon, M.D. “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.”

An innovative online platform that supports continuing medical education (CME) and other professional training, the AMA Ed Hub™ serves as a centralized source of high-quality, vetted educational content from the AMA and other trusted sources. The new equity-related modules being announced today have been developed by the AMA’s Center for Health Equity and additional collaborating organizations, such as the American College of Radiology (ACR), COVID Black, The Fenway Institute, Howard Brown Health, SAGECare, and Stanford Medicine. Examples of available modules include content from the AMA Center for Health Equity’s Prioritizing Equity CME video series—illuminating how COVID-19 and other determinants of health uniquely impact marginalized communities—and more from data organization COVID Black.

Prioritizing Equity CME video series

• Prioritizing Equity — The Root Cause: An overview of health equity perspectives from advocates whose work is driven by the mission to address the root cause of health inequity and the social determinants of health.
• Prioritizing Equity — Trustworthiness & Vaccines: A review of misinformation, trustworthiness, and strategies to handle vaccine hesitancy among patients and health care professionals.
• Prioritizing Equity — Mental Health and COVID-19: Covering COVID-19’s immediate and long-term effects on the mental health of minoritized and marginalized communities.

COVID Black CME module

• Introduction to Racism in Medicine (Module 1): An overview of the historical and contemporary social construction of race and the obstacles racism poses for the attainment of health and wellness.

Additional new health equity-related modules are scheduled for release throughout the remainder of 2021 and beyond, covering key topic areas such as structural competency, public health, social sciences, critical race theory, and historical basis of disease. An overarching goal of the content is to help learners better understand how systems of power, structures, policies, and practices impact us all.

“We all have a role in disrupting and dismantling systems that produce harm and finding ways to rebuild them to ensure justice, compassion, and equitable care for all patients,” said AMA Chief Health Equity Officer Aletha Maybank, M.D., M.P.H. “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. Together, we can promote equitable opportunities, resources, conditions, and power for historically marginalized communities—as we strive for optimal health for all.”

The health equity-related content will join a host of other articles, podcasts, videos, and interactive modules covering timely topics such as COVID-19, telemedicine, leadership in healthcare, opioid and pain management, and more trending education on the AMA Ed Hub™. Launched in 2019 and designed to support lifelong learning, licensure, and certification needs for physicians and their care teams, the platform covers a wide variety of clinical and professional topics and specialties in one centralized online location — helping physicians stay current in their practice of medicine while reducing the administrative burdens associated with tracking and reporting CME and other education. Currently, the AMA Ed Hub™ Health Equity Education Center brings together a broad set of education focused on health equity developed by subject matter experts from across the organization and externally, including:

• Ethics Talk: Equal Justice Under Law and Health Equity—from the AMA Journal of Ethics
• Addressing Social Determinants of Health (SDOH): Beyond the Clinic Walls—from AMA STEPS Forward™ practice transformation series
• Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Need for a Structurally Competent Health Care System— from JN Learning™ (CME/MOC from the JAMA Network™)
• Bringing Awareness to Implicit Bias—from ACR
• Historical Foundations of Racism in Medicine—in collaboration with COVID Black
• Affirming Care for People with Intersex Traits—coming soon from The Fenway Institute
• LGBTQ Essentials: Foundations of Care —from Howard Brown Health
• Working With Patients Who Are Transgender—from SAGECare
• Health Across the Gender Spectrum—from Stanford Medicine

Through research, collaborations, advocacy, and leadership, the AMA believes in supporting system-level solutions to identify and address root causes of inequities while elevating their importance to patients, communities, and stakeholders. The AMA’s Center for Health Equity focuses on facilitating, strengthening, and amplifying the organization’s work to eliminate health inequities, and is central to operationalizing the organization’s strategic plan (PDF) 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 that vision.