The neighborhood health exchange: developing a community partnership in residency.

Background: The current system of residency training focuses on the hospital setting, and resident exposure to the surrounding community is often limited. However, community interaction can play an important role in ambulatory training and in learning systems-based practice, a residency core competency. The goal of the Neighborhood Health Exchange was to develop a community partnership to provide internal medicine residents with an opportunity to interface with community members through a mutually beneficial educational experience.

The Chicago Breathe Project: a regional approach to improving education on asthma inhalers for resident physicians and minority patients.

Background: Asthma affects minority citizens in Chicago disproportionately. Policy changes introducing hydrofluroalkane (HFA) inhalers may worsen already-existing health disparities related to asthma.

Aims: To teach internal medicine residents about the transition to HFAs so they can better counsel their patients on asthma self-management.