Affirming and Inclusive Care Training for Medical Students and Residents to Reduce Health Disparities Experienced by Sexual and Gender Minorities: A Systematic Review.

Purpose: Providing inclusive and comprehensive gender-affirming care is critical to reducing health disparities (gaps in care) experienced by sexual and gender minorities (SGM). Currently, little is known about how medical students and residents are being trained to address the health needs of SGM persons or of the most effective methods.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review of the research literature from 2000 to 2020 on the effectiveness of teaching medical students and residents on knowledge, attitudes, and skills in addressing the health of SGM persons and the strength of the research sample, design, and methods used.

Utilizing Supplemental Online Modules for Physician Assistant Student Electrocardiogram Interpretation Training.

Purpose: The literature suggests that graduating medical and physician assistant (PA) students lack competency in electrocardiogram (ECG) interpretation. This project aimed to determine whether use of perceptual adaptive learning modules (PALMs) would improve PA students' ECG interpretation, alter self-perceptions of their ECG education, or both.

Methods: PALMs were incorporated into the PA curriculum after lecture-based ECG learning.

Buckets Inequitably Filled by Our Shared Histories.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected patients of color and illuminates long-standing inequity in health status, health outcomes, and access to health care. Maldistribution of burden of disease, risk exposure, and how vulnerable we are to our lives unraveling is not merely unfortunate, not simply due to a bad turn of the cosmic wheel, but unjust, as illustrated in this digital self-portrait.

Determining the Best Time to Integrate Opioid Use Disorder Training into the Curriculum Based on Student Perceptions.

Purpose: The clinical phase of physician assistant (PA) education has been reported to be the best time period to deliver opioid prescribing education (OPE) and opioid addiction education (OAE); however, there are no current published studies that evaluate the timing of OPE and OAE instruction in PA curricula.

Methods: This pilot study compared didactic and clinical phase cohorts' perceived confidence in their ability to evaluate patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) after receiving identical training at different time points within the curriculum.

Results: As expected, clinical phase students displayed high confidence levels in their abilities both before and after implementation of OUD-focused patient simulations.

Baseline Characteristics of the 2015-2019 First Year Student Cohorts of the NIH Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Program.

Objective: The biomedical/behavioral sciences lag in the recruitment and advancement of students from historically underrepresented backgrounds. In 2014 the NIH created the Diversity Program Consortium (DPC), a prospective, multi-site study comprising 10 Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) institutional grantees, the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) and a Coordination and Evaluation Center (CEC). This article describes baseline characteristics of four incoming, first-year student cohorts at the primary BUILD institutions who completed the Higher Education Research Institute, The Freshmen Survey between 2015-2019.

Racial disparities in economic and clinical outcomes of pregnancy among Medicaid recipients.

To explore racial-ethnic disparities in adverse pregnancy outcomes among Medicaid recipients, and to estimate excess Medicaid costs associated with the disparities. Cross-sectional study of adverse pregnancy outcomes and Medicaid payments using data from Medicaid Analytic eXtract files on all Medicaid enrollees in fourteen southern states. Compared to other racial and ethnic groups, African American women tended to be younger, more likely to have a Cesarean section, to stay longer in the hospital and to incur higher Medicaid costs.

Health-related quality of life in elderly black and white patients with cancer: results from Medicare managed care population.

Objective: To compare differences in various aspects of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) between Black and White individuals diagnosed with cancer.

Design: The data were extracted from 2005-2007 Medicare Health Outcome Survey, a health outcomes measure for the Medicare population in managed care settings. A total of 14089 Black and White respondents aged > or = 65 with cancer were included in the study.

A comparison of breast and cervical cancer legislation and screening in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

We identified legislation (1989-2005) relating to breast and cervical cancer in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina and examined its impact on screening rates for these cancers and on Black-White disparities in screening rates. Legislation was identified using the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) State Cancer Legislative Database (SCLD) Program. Screening rates were identified using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.

Depressive symptoms, substance abuse, and intimate partner violence among pregnant women of diverse ethnicities.

This study examines the relationship between self-reported depressive symptoms, substance abuse and intimate partner violence among 602 African American, Hispanic, White, Asian American, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander pregnant women who are clients of the Augusta Partnership for Children, Inc., a nonprofit collaborative that works with agencies, organizations, and individuals to improve the lives of children and families in Augusta-Richmond County, Georgia. Descriptive statistics and significant relationships among selected variables using correlation and regression analyses were conducted.

Translation squared: improving asthma care for high-disparity populations through a safety net practice-based research network.

To assess the effectiveness of an intervention designed to increase compliance with national asthma care guidelines in primary care safety net health centers serving high-disparity patient populations, we conducted a group-randomized controlled trial (seven intervention sites and nine control sites) in federally funded community health centers in eight southeastern states. There were three components involved in the intervention: resources (asthma kits including peak flow meter, MDI spacer device, plus educational materials), training of all health center staff in asthma care guidelines, and tools or templates for practice-level systems change (asthma flow sheets and standing orders). Control group sites received only copies of the national asthma guidelines.

Racial/ethnic differences in the self-reported use of screening mammography.

The efficacy of mammography in reducing breast cancer mortality among women 50-69 years of age has been demonstrated in randomized controlled studies, but many women, especially ethnic minorities, have not been receiving regular mammographic screening. The current study investigated racial/ethnic differences in mammography use and their association with demographic characteristics and other factors. The study population consisted of 4,444 women aged 40 years and older who participated in the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey.

Do clinicians screen Medicaid patients for syphilis or HIV when they diagnose other sexually transmitted diseases?

Background: Patients diagnosed with gonorrhea or chlamydia are at high risk for HIV and syphilis, and should be offered screening for both.

Goal: This study measures HIV and syphilis screening rates among Medicaid patients diagnosed with another sexually transmitted disease (STD).

Study Design: Using 1998 Medicaid claims data from 4 states, we identified individuals diagnosed with gonorrhea, urogenital chlamydia, or pelvic inflammatory disease, and then measured the proportion receiving screening tests for HIV and syphilis.