Journal of general internal medicine
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The American Association of Medical Colleges trialed residency application initiatives including geographic preferences and preference signals in 2022. ⋯ Both preference signals and geographic preferences have significant associations with odds of an application receiving an interview and matching for both categorical and preliminary internal medicine applicants. This study can be used to inform applicants, advisors, and programs how novel application strategies can affect important application outcomes for US medical school graduates. As more specialties pilot alternative processes, it will be important to study all application outcomes among varying applicant populations.
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Significant national discourse has focused on the idea of structural inequalities and structural racism within a variety of societal sectors, including healthcare. This perspective provides an understanding of the historic and pervasive nature of structural inequalities and structural racism; uses well-known frameworks in health equity research for conceptualizing structural inequality and structural racism; offers a summary of the consequences of structural inequalities and structural racism on modern-day health outcomes; and concludes with strategies and suggestions for a way forward. Recommended strategies across different sectors of influence include (a) employment and economic empowerment sector: creating capacity for individuals to earn livable wages; (b) education sector: developing new funding structures to ensure equal opportunities are offered to all; (c) healthcare sector: prioritizing universal access to high-quality health care, including mental health treatment; (d) housing sector: improving access to affordable, safe housing through public-private partnerships; (e) criminal justice sector: focusing reform on restorative justice that is people-centric instead of punitive; and (f) environmental sector: creating sustainable systems that alleviate downstream consequences of climate change. The recommended strategies account for the mutually reinforcing and pervasive nature of structural inequalities/structural racism and target key sectors of influence to enhance overall health outcomes and achieve equity regardless of race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status.
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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual and gender minority (LGBTQ +) individuals experience bias in healthcare with 1 in 6 LGBTQ + adults avoiding healthcare due to anticipated discrimination and overall report poorer health status compared to heterosexual and cisgendered peers. The Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) is a leading organization representing academic physicians and recognizes that significant physical and mental health inequities exist among LGBTQ + communities. As such, SGIM sees its role in improving LGBTQ + patient health through structural change, starting at the national policy level all the way to encouraging change in individual provider bias and personal actions. SGIM endorses a series of recommendations for policy priorities, research and data collection standards, and institutional policy changes as well as community engagement and individual practices to reduce bias and improve the well-being and health of LGBTQ + patients.
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Gaps in accessibility and communication hinder diabetes care in poor communities. Combining mobile health (mHealth) and community health workers (CHWs) into models to bridge these gaps has great potential but needs evaluation. ⋯ NCT03394456, accessed at https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03394456.
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Letter Randomized Controlled Trial
Effect of Care Management on Cholesterol for Individuals with Serious Mental Illness: a Secondary Analysis of an RCT.