Health Equity Curriculum
Overview
The Health Equity Curriculum (HEC) was created by the Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia (CHESA) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) with contributions from multidisciplinary collaborators. The HEC was designed to fill a gap in health equity education for surgery and anesthesia residents to better serve patients. The curriculum is intended to be integrated into the core training for all residents, provide exposure that generates career interest, and be complimented by more robust training opportunities and pathways in global health. At UCSF, complementary programs include the Global Health 101x online course, DEI training, HEAR Justice Pathway and Global Health Pathway.
The HEC currently includes five modules:
- Global Health Equity & Social Determinants of Health
- Structural Racism & Anti-Racism
- Cultural Humility & Structural Competence
- Safety Net Health Systems
- Anesthesia Care in Resource-Constrained Settings
The curriculum was created for a range of perioperative disciplines (e.g. surgery, anesthesia, nursing) and can be implemented for trainees interested in global health in perioperative settings.
Implementation
The HEC webpage is a place for educators and program directors interested in implementing the curriculum. It includes the HEC education materials, which can adapted to complement a locally relevant program for healthcare trainees in the perioperative space.
Materials
Each module includes the following materials:
- Facilitator Guide
- Lecture Slides
- Readings and Resources
- Lesson Plan (selected modules)
- Small Group Case Slides (selected modules)
All materials on the HEC webpage are linked to a Google Drive or external sites. Google Drive documents cannot be edited. If you would like to adapt the materials, please make a copy or download the documents from the Google Drive.
New materials and updates are continuously added. For the most up-to-date materials, use the versions linked on the HEC webpage.
Curriculum Planning
The table below can be used as a guide to plan HEC modules. It includes the level of learners intended, time needed, and number of faculty needed for each module. The curriculum can be condensed into a few days or completed over a longer period.
Feedback
We would love to hear your feedback about the HEC materials and your implementation experience. Please complete this survey.
This lecture and interactive small group session are designed to introduce and define health equity, health disparities and the social determinants of health, and illustrate that health equity is a global issue (local + international) with often unrecognized significance for perioperative patients and communities with high burdens of surgical disease and pain.
Lectures
- Intro to Global Health, Health Equity, Health Disparities & Social Determinants of Health
- Disparities in pain and analgesia (coming soon)
- Perioperative care for sexual and gender minority (SGM) patients (coming soon)
Small Group Activities
Readings & Resources
- Health Equity Atlas Visualization Tool
- Setting a national agenda for surgical disparities research
- Pain and Policy Studies Group Course
- CHESA Reading List
This lecture and interactive small group session are designed to define and explore examples of structural and institutional racism and to create space for discussion of racism in medicine as a public health threat.
Lectures
Small Group Activities
Readings & Resources
- Anti-Racism and Race Literacy: A Primer and Toolkit for Medical Educators
- Dignity in childbirth & pregnancy: preventing racial bias in perinatal care
- CHESA Reading List
This lecture and interactive small group session are designed to define cultural and structural humility, provide a framework for understanding how these concepts can impact patient care, and explore potential interventions to improve health equity.
Lectures
Small Group Activities
Readings & Resources
- Structural Competency Working Group Facilitator Preparation Terms and Concepts
- Full Structural Competency Toolkit
- Structural Competency Working Group Trainee Participant Workbook
- Cultural humility: Essential Foundation for Clinical Researchers
- Structural Violence and Clinical Medicine
- CHESA Reading List
This lecture is designed to provide a general overview of key safety net health systems in the United States (e.g. Medicare, Medicaid, ACA Exchange), including state and local programs, using California as an example (e.g. MediCal, Covered California, Health San Francisco). The lecture also defines ‘safety net hospital’ and ‘critical access hospital,’ while briefly exploring why healthcare in the US is so expensive and often inaccessible for many individuals and communities.
Lectures
Readings & Resources
- 10 Things to Know About Medicaid
- America’s Essential Hospitals Learning Series
- Safety Net Health Systems at Risk: Who Bares the Burden of Uncompensated Care
- Characteristics of Safety-Net Hospitals
- Waste in the US Health Care System: Estimated Costs and Potential for Savings
- CHESA Reading List
This module is designed to provide an introduction to some of the skills and knowledge required for working clinically in resource-constrained settings. There is one introductory lecture, and then learners are split into small groups of 3-5, which rotate through three interactive stations. The 4-hour module is intended to be taught in-person, though some parts can be taught by Zoom.
- Facilitator Guide: Workshop Structure
- Station 1: Oxygen Concentrator and Power Failure Simulation
- Station 2: Drawover Anesthesia Systems and Ketamine Case Discussions
- Station 3: Airway, Access and Resuscitation in Resource-Variable Settings
- Additional Station: Ethical Challenges in Resource-Constrained Settings
Other Resources
Contributors
The following collaborators have contributed to the creation of content and conceptual framework for this curriculum:
- Beti Asnake, Brianna Carreno, Elliot Wollner, Rebecca Chen, Odi Ehie, Ron Lane, Sofia Esteva, Jabari Hughes, Tyler Law, Maytinee Lilaonitkul, Michael Lipnick, Bunmi Okunlola, Caitlin Collins, Mignote Yilma, Sara Mohamedaly, Nichole Starr, Allison Pardo, Janette Tang, Doruk Ozgediz, Gabriel Sarah.
