1. Addressing health disparities in the South Texas Community
Santiago Diaz, BS1, Monica B. Vela, MD2, Francisco Fernandez, MD3, Tina Garza, MEd4
1Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL; 2Department of Internal Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL; 3University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, Edinburg, TX; 4Harlingen School of Health Professions, Harlingen, TX
Background
Specific Aims
Results
Discussion and limitations
The following three-day curriculum was implemented. 16 high school sophomores and juniors were recruited and all successfully completed the program
During our final evaluation, the students (n=16) were asked to rate the program on a scale of 1 to 5, and the program received an average rating of 4.33
The program rating of 4.33 indicates that the program was well-received and that there’s an interest to continue this project
As the pre-test-post-test analysis indicates, the program had a positive impact on the students as it increased their knowledge about health disparities in their community and the medical school admission process. Additionally, the survey results indicate that, after being exposed to the curriculum, the students are more likely to choose South Texas as their practice site for medicine, and more likely to work toward mitigating disparities
One of the limitations of this project is the fact that the program is designed to be run during a period in which students are not in school but physicians and professors are still working. The only period of time that fits this criteria is summer break. Therefore, this program can only be run once a year during this time
In addition, measuring the success of this program's ability to increase physician population and/or decrease health disparities in the South Texas community will be hard to measure. We would have to follow up with these students for a very significant amount of time in order to find this out
Designing a health-related curriculum that exposes students to medical role models and informs them about the health disparities in their community
Implementing said curriculum with the hopes of inspiring said students to work toward addressing these disparities and become health care professionals for their community
Assess the success of the curriculum by measuring an attitudinal and knowledge change in the exposed students via a pre-test and post-test surveys
The South Texas area is one of the most medically underserved communities in the United States. 21 out of the 38 counties in South Texas have been as Primary Care Health Professional Shortage Areas (Ramirez et al, 2013)
It has been shown that an increase in the physician workforce, particularly primary care, leads to greater quality of care (Greenfield et al, 1995)
Perceived level of academic commitment and geographic isolation from healthcare practice sites are one of the strongest factors that discourage students from pursuing a medical career (Zayas and McGuigan, 2006)
Primary care physicians per 100,000 population
Knowledge/attitude assessment based on survey responses
References
Greenfield S, Rogers W, Mangotich M, Carney MF, Tarlov AR. “Outcomes of patients with hypertension and non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus treated by different systems and specialties. Results from the medical outcomes study.” Journal of the American Medical Association. 274(18): November
Ramirez, A. R., Thompson, I. M., Vela, L. “South Texas Health Status Review: A Health Disparities Roadmap” Pg 17-18
Zayas, L. E. and McGuigan, D. “Experiences Promoting Healthcare Career Interest among High-School Students from Underserved Communities.” Journal of the National Medical Association. 98(9). September 2006
Acknowledgements
The funds and supplies necessary to run this project were generously provided by Innovation Fund at Pritzker School of Medicine, and The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine. The authors would also like to thank Harlingen School of Health Professions’ faculty and staff for kindly hosting this program. We would also like to thank the doctors and the students who offered their valuable time and services to make this project possible.
Cameron and Hidalgo counties in South Texas have a smaller proportion of PCP when compared to the national and state averages.
Source: 2013 Area Health Resource Files. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Bureau of Health Workforce
Courtesy of Suad Ghaddar, PhD, UT RGV
Students (n=8) were asked to rate from 1 to 5 their knowledge about disparities in South Texas and the medical school admission process. They were also asked to rate from 1 to 5 (very unlikely to very likely) the likelihood of them practicing medicine in South Texas and working toward mitigating disparities