Med-Peds Antiracism and Equity Research, Education, and Action Committee (MAEREA)

 

The MAEREA Committee formed through evolution of the Med-Peds Anti-racism Task Force which was created in 2021 as part of our program pledge made in response to police brutality and the anti-black racism that affects our patient population leading to deleterious health outcomes. The committee is supported through the Division of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics and is directed by faculty co-leaders, Dr. Bryan Leyva and Dr. Tiffani Houston. Below you will find the focus areas of our committee and the progress we have made since 2021. If you have more questions about the MAEREA Committee, contact Dr. Bryan Leyva or Dr. Tiffani Houston.

Committee Focus Areas:

  • Leadership

  • Climate and Recruitment

  • Learning Environment

  • Pathways, Outreach, and Pipeline

  • Research Action Group and Clinical Health Equity

Ongoing Committee Efforts:

1) Leadership

  • Formalization of the MAEREA within the Division of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics

  • Faculty and resident involvement in GME driven committees for DEI recruitment and resident retention.

  • Med-Peds leadership roles in the newly formed Society of Black Physicians and Scientists

2) Climate and Recruitment

  • Active participation in local and national recruitment fairs for BIPOC medical students

  • “Voices” recruitment webinar sharing BIPOC resident experiences.

  • Open communication for reporting inappropriate and racist behavior in clinical settings.

  • Commitment to a holistic candidate review for the MP class of 2028

3) Learning Environment

  • Implementation of the Intern Anti-Racism Curriculum series

  • Ongoing development of longitudinal Anti-racism and Equity curriculum for senior-level Med-Peds elective and selective rotations, based on ACGME milestones for clinical competency.

  • Anti-racist critical appraisal of all presentations and journal club article review that mentions “race” in any context and/or includes differentiation between populations with no context.

  • Implementation of Anti-Racism Grand Rounds

  • Designated resource for maltreatment and reporting

4) Pathways, Outreach and Pipeline

  • Mentorship to the Student National Medical Association

  • Resident and Faculty membership within Society of Black Physicians and Scientists

  • Resident membership within the CIR

5) Research Action Group and Clinical Health Equity

  • Ongoing development of needs assessment with MP clinic as representative patient population sample

Original 2021/2022 Task Force Deliverables Leadership

  • Program participation in GME driven task forces

  • Quarterly meetings of the MP anti-racism task force

  • Community engagement as guest speakers and patient advocates in local, government, and educational settings

Climate and Recruitment:

  • Continued holistic review of residency applicants while refining our anti-racist recruitment process

  • Incorporate Anti-Racism Task Force to the Med-Peds website

  • Accept invitations to participate in regional and national recruitment fairs hosted by student organizations catering to the unique needs of medical students of color

Learning Environment

  • Continued development of a longitudinal Anti-Racism Curriculum in residency training

  • Review current academic curricula to ensure racial bias/stereotypes are not perpetuated

  • Promote CME and toolkits for faculty on how to create and maintain an anti-racist learning environment

  • Invite thought leaders to speak/teach as part of a conference series during Med-Peds Noon Conference focused on Anti-Racism skills and health equity

  • Lobby for a faculty position to ensure protected time for curriculum development and an inclusive learning environment

Pathways, Outreach and Pipeline

  • Provide dedicated mentorship for BIPOC undergraduate and medical students

  • Actively participate in new community pipeline programs

  • Partner with neighboring school districts to collaborate in science curriculum and increase exposure to careers in STEM

  • Partner with other pipeline programs within UM/JMH

Research Action Group and Clinical Health Equity

  • Continued development of the Anti-racist toolkit for research endeavors

  • Explore QI projects that evaluate health care disparities which may cause barriers in early, mid, and late childhood education

  • Conduct research with the purpose of affecting policy change

  • Evidence-based medicine and Journal Club retooled to incorporate anti-racism and dismantling scientific racism in evaluating medical literature Anti-Racism Task Force contact: Lawrence Rolle, MD, MBA, PGY2

Updated 10/2/23

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Our Pledge

For the past several years, the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Residency Program has been troubled, concerned, and spurred to action as police brutality and acts of racialized tension and stereotypes have manifested in fatal aggression against African-American children and adults. Trayvon Martin. Sandra Bland. Tamir Rice. Eric Garner. Breonna Taylor. George Floyd. And the countless others whose names are not known nationally.

As physicians in one of the largest public hospitals in the United States, we bear witness to systemic racism and social injustice every day. It appears daily in the form of early mortality, uncontrolled disease, late diagnoses, delayed milestones, undetected cancers, untreated pain, poorly healed wounds, amputations, missed medications, unsafe discharges, and endless waiting lists for primary care and specialty appointments.  We recognize that the pillar of medicine has shared roots with the country’s history of racism and discrimination - from its origins in eugenics to segregated clinics and hospitals. This cultural moment has provided us a lens to reflect on the persistent effects of white supremacy and racism in medicine and our society more broadly. Our Black patients disproportionately experience the deadly effects of police brutality, but also the deadly effects of a medical system that still treats Black bodies as less than.

We recognize that current medical education is entrenched in racial, gendered, and class-based hierarchies, which implicitly continues to indoctrinate and gaslight medical students and residents.  Learners are taught to blame the patient instead of an oppressive medical system that is both rooted in racism and values profit over patients. In doing so, medical students and doctors have become agents of complicit, and sometimes explicit, oppression toward those we have an oath of beneficence. It is the ethos of our program that we adhere to a socially responsible, ethical medical education that does not pathologize the marginalized and vulnerable, but equips and empowers us to dismantle the oppressive systems. 

We acknowledge that residency is not a safe training environment for physicians of color, particularly Black physicians, who have experientially and statistically faced the most pronounced consequences of a racist healthcare system. To this, we acknowledge the need to elevate and amplify Black voices, to acknowledge the deep-seated, uncomfortable issues of racist work environments, to provide avenues of just recourse, and to stand committed to systemic change. Our strength has always been our diversity, and not just numbers or faces in a pamphlet, but true opportunities for our program’s resident physicians to be engaged in meaningful discourse, leadership, and training that affirms respect, belonging, and value in each voice.

Our program is committed to social justice reform, and we have already had some success in deconstructing socioeconomic and medical barriers to patient care. This has come in the form of providing culturally proficient care to patients regardless of insurance status, the removal of “non-compliance” as a patient descriptor, ongoing academic research on racial health disparities, involvement in local STEM programs for students of color, and recruiting one of the most diverse training programs in the country. However, we have not done enough to explicitly denounce anti-Black racism in our communities, in our medical care, or in our medical education system.

Today, we pledge to act. We pledge to dismantle white supremacy and institutionalized racism. We pledge to take an anti-racism stance, in which we are intentional with our actions and voices and accountable for our inaction and silence. To accomplish this, we have developed a plan of action based on a framework created by UCSF’s “Differences Matter” initiative, which has had proven success in creating a culture of inclusivity, diversity and equity. We commit to a quarterly review of our progress in order to keep us active and accountable. Together, we strive to eradicate institutionalized racism and the oppression of vulnerable communities in our medical system and the community at large. 

 
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