Best Practices for Acknowledging and Addressing Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in Medical Education

This manual is an instructional guide to provide healthcare educators with best practices for acknowledging and addressing racial and ethnic health disparities (REHD) in medical education. As a collaborative effort written by both medical students and educators, this manual examines the impact of race, racism, and ethnic biases on medical care and health outcomes. 

This book enables readers to understand and apply key terms encompassing health disparities, bias, and cultural humility as an approach to demystify stereotypes, social assumptions and long-held misperceptions that influence the misuse of race in medical teachings. By examining the construct of race, differences between race-based and race-conscious medicine are distinguished. As such, medical educators will be guided to consider the effects of socioeconomic differences, environmental factors, and institutional racism between population categories with regard to healthcare compliance and outcomes.

Supported by evidence-based recommendations, this manual provides medical educators, curriculum managers, and institutions with strategies and checklists to improve their medical curricula to ensure a well-defined understanding of race and ethnicity in medicine. This book serves as a resource for medical educators and students as they aspire to become more culturally competent, equity-minded, and inclusive healthcare professionals. 

Jacqueline M. Powell is an Associate Professor of Physiology at Rocky Vista University (RVU). She is the Chair of the RVU-Southern Utah Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity (DEI) Committee and the University-wide DEI Climate Taskforce, Faculty Advisor for RVU’s Asian and Pacific Islander Student Association, as well as a member of the University-wide Inclusive Excellence Advisory Council. She currently mentors and advises several students with research projects that promote DEI and health equity in medicine. Dr. Powell also serves as Founding Chair of the International Association of Medical Science Educator’s (IAMSE) Racial Equity Committee and is a member of IAMSE’s Encouraging Growth and Advocacy in Gaining Equity Committee, involved in helping the Association advance its efforts with regard to diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Rachel M.A. Linger is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology at Rocky Vista University (RVU). She has been a member of RVU’s Faculty Development Committee since 2016. Dr. Linger was a member of RVU’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Task Force for Curriculum in academic year 2020-2021. The Task Force was charged with creating an actionable plan for addressing DEI in the core curricula at RVU. In 2021, Dr. Linger was appointed to the RVU cross-campus Diversity & Inclusivity Committee. Through her roles in faculty development and DEI, she strives to ensure that faculty are equipped with the tools and skills necessary to teach with cultural humility.