NEW YORK, Oct. 21, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Icahn
School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
will enroll 11 partner medical schools in its Anti-Racist
Transformation (ART) in Medical Education initiative, which seeks
to use a formal change management process developed at Mount Sinai to address deeply entrenched
racism and bias. The initiative has received generous support from
the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation.
"While racism permeates clinical practice and biomedical
research, the shadow that it casts on medical education is even
more profound and egregious; it is through medical education that
racism and bias are perpetuated across multiple generations," says
David Muller, MD, FACP, Dean for
Medical Education, Icahn Mount Sinai, and a Principal Investigator
of the initiative. "We developed our model in the belief that
racism can only be mitigated through a formal change management
process that is life-long and requires vigilance and openness to
course correction."
Icahn Mount Sinai's project to dismantle racism in medical
education gets underway immediately and will last about three
years. The goal of the initiative is to transform culture and build
capacity at each of these schools, in an effort to establish
anti-racism as an organizing principle in medical education. The
initiative includes a virtual learning platform designed to engage
students, staff, and faculty in virtual experiential learning,
assessments, outcome and performance monitoring sessions, and
coaching. The ART in Medical Education project replicates and
adapts a framework developed by Mount
Sinai faculty and students.
Icahn Mount Sinai received a total of 48 submissions, which a
selection committee evaluated to gauge vision, commitment,
administrative capacity, institutional alignment, and diversity of
institutions (geography, public/private, new/established schools).
Its selection committee was purposeful in selecting a broad
spectrum of schools:
College of Medicine, University of
Saskatchewan
Columbia University Vagelos College of
Physicians and Surgeons
David Geffen School of Medicine at
the University of California, Los
Angeles
Duke University School of Medicine
East Carolina University Brody School
of Medicine
The George Washington University School of
Medicine & Health Sciences
The Ohio State University College of
Medicine
University of Arizona College of
Medicine – Phoenix
University of Minnesota Medical
School
University of Missouri-Columbia School
of Medicine
University of the Incarnate Word School
of Osteopathic Medicine
Step one of the project will involve co-creating "a brave
learning environment," where dialogue is open and direct, within
established boundaries that ensure a framework that is open and
honest, while feeling safe at the same time. While co-creating
these brave spaces, Icahn Mount Sinai is working with working
groups of students, faculty, and staff at each of the 11 schools to
assess readiness to change at both the individual and institutional
levels. This assessment of readiness will involve taking a close
look at the factors that contribute to the school's overall ability
to change, those who will help the school prepare for change, and
the motivation of individuals involved with the change.
To change the way physicians are trained in medical school,
Icahn Mount Sinai began implementing its anti-racism strategy
several years ago. One of the first milestones in this process was
the publication of a paper titled "Addressing and Undoing Racism
and Bias in the Medical School Learning and Work Environment" in
Academic Medicine in December 2020.
The paper, coauthored by Leona Hess,
PhD, MSW, Senior Director of the Strategy and Equity Education
Program, and Ann-Gel S. Palermo, DrPH, MPH, Senior Associate Dean
for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, sparked engagement within the
Mount Sinai community while also
engaging the interest of other medical schools.
"We're thrilled to share the lessons we've learned and the
approach that was developed by our faculty in close partnership
with students and staff. It takes this all-in, team approach to
effect meaningful change and has been an eye-opening experience for
us," says Dr. Muller.
"ART in Med Ed is not the linear, task- and output-oriented
approach that is traditionally seen in academic medicine. It relies
on deep personal and communal reflection, the courage to ask the
really hard questions, and the patience to course-correct in a very
dynamic manner in an effort to achieve equity and racial justice,"
says Dr. Muller.
Dr. Hess, a co-investigator of ART in Med Ed, joined Icahn Mount
Sinai in 2018 to lead a transformational process to dismantle
racism among leaders, faculty, and students. Dr. Hess emphasizes
that Icahn Mount Sinai has done its own hard work to grasp a new
understanding of change. "As we were reviewing applications we were
specifically looking for schools where leadership and students
alike would embrace a change process that is life-long and
involving deep, difficult conversations in an environment that
fosters a welcoming and creative community exchange of ideas, where
we are all learning from each other," says Dr. Hess.
"In our evaluation of schools, we looked for schools with strong
student support, because without support from the ground up and the
top down, sustained change is not possible," says co-investigator
Jennifer Dias, a rising third-year
medical student, who has taken a scholarly year to design,
implement and manage the project under the direction of Drs. Muller
and Hess.
About the Mount Sinai Health System
The Mount Sinai Health System is New
York City's largest academic medical system, encompassing
eight hospitals, a leading medical school, and a vast network of
ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. We advance medicine and
health through unrivaled education and translational research and
discovery to deliver care that is the safest, highest-quality, most
accessible and equitable, and the best value of any health system
in the nation. The Health System includes approximately 7,300
primary and specialty care physicians; 13 free-standing
joint-venture centers; more than 410 ambulatory practices
throughout the five boroughs of New York
City, Westchester, and
Long Island; and more than 30
affiliated community health centers. The Mount Sinai Hospital is
ranked in U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" of the top 20
U.S. hospitals and among the top in the nation by specialty: No. 1
in Geriatrics and top 20 in Cardiology/Heart Surgery,
Diabetes/Endocrinology, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery,
Neurology/Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pulmonology/Lung Surgery,
Urology, and Rehabilitation. Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital
is ranked in U.S. News & World Report's "Best Children's
Hospitals" among the country's best in four out of 10 pediatric
specialties. New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked among the Top 20
nationally for ophthalmology. The Icahn School of Medicine at
Mount Sinai is one of three
medical schools that have earned distinction by multiple
indicators: ranked in the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report's
"Best Medical Schools," aligned with a U.S. News & World Report
"Honor Roll" Hospital, and No. 14 in the nation for National
Institutes of Health funding. Newsweek's "The World's Best Smart
Hospitals" ranks The Mount Sinai Hospital as No. 1 in New York and top five globally, and Mount
Sinai Morningside as top 20 globally, and "The World's Best
Specialized Hospitals" ranks Mount Sinai Heart as No. 1 in
New York and No. 4 globally and
the Division of Gastroenterology as No. 3 globally. For more
information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and
YouTube.
Media Contact
Tildy La Farge, Mount Sinai
Health System, 212-241-9200, tildy.lafarge@mountsinai.org
SOURCE Mount Sinai Health System