Health Equity Curriculum

Date of Review: March, 2024

This 5-module curriculum, from the Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia (CHESA) at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), is designed to introduce surgery and anesthesia residents to core health equity topics. The curriculum aims to provide a general exposure to 5 topics: global health equity and the social determinants of health, structural racism and anti-racism, cultural humility and structural competence, safety net health systems, and anesthesia care in resource-constrained settings. Each module provides a fairly detailed overview of the topic as well as links to multiple resources and readings for more in-depth exploration. The first three modules involve a one-hour lecture with an accompanying small-group session, while the safety net module is only lecture-based and the module on anesthesia care in resource-constrained settings includes a 3-hour sim-based workshop. The small-group sessions are case based and allow for some exploration and interactive discussion. The lectures and small group sessions could be easily implemented at other institutions and integrated into existing protected educational time for residents. The faciltation guides and lecture notes are fairly thorough. However, given the complex nature of these topics, these modules would be best facilitated by a faculty member with previous training and expertise in the social determinants of health, structural racism, and implicit bias. The sim-based workshop could be adapted to any institution with a simulation center and facilitated by faculty with prior expertise in delivering anesthesia care in resource limited settings. Overall, this curriculum provides a nice framework for integrating health equity topics into surgery and anesthesia training that can be easily adapted to other settings and enriched through facilitators with appropriate expertise. –Emma Anselin, MD, NCEAS

Institution:

UCSF

Where was the Curriculum Implemented:

San Francisco, CA

Clinical specialty:

Anesthesiology