Harvard Medical School received a donation of $ 150,000 on November 19 to support the development of an office for community-centered medical education.

Funding has been provided by a private donor and will be used to promote the mission of the HMS Office for Community Centered Medical Education of fostering links between students of HMS and the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and marginalized populations in the greater region. from Boston.

Since the office development discussions began at HMS last spring, the office has had a smooth launch this fall, created a community health project with the HMS Office for Scholarly Engagement, and submitted its formalized vision, core values ​​and its strategic plan to the leadership of HMS.

The office’s steering committee, chaired by Nancy E. Oriol – HMS ‘associate dean for community engagement in medical education – organized a series of town halls and online surveys to assess the specific needs of students. , faculty and members from historically underserved areas of Boston.

“One thing that’s really important is when you think of community engagement, there’s this concept of slow co-production,” Oriol said. “When you create something, you have to co-create it with the people who are going to be affected by it. “

According to a survey conducted by the HMS and HSDM Student Council of 80 percent of first-year medical students, 88 percent agreed or strongly agreed that community engagement would be part of their future career in medicine or dentistry. In addition, 85% of them agreed or strongly agreed that the office of community-centered medical education “would improve their educational experience”.

Drawing on numerous conversations and survey results, the committee created a framework for the office’s intended mission and values, which include anti-racism, transparency, inclusiveness, longitudinal sustainability, reciprocity, justice and investment.

One of the main goals of the office, according to Oriol, is to establish a relationship of trust and meaningful relationships with community organizations while helping to welcome a busy and ever-changing medical student population.

The office has also worked on creating a community health pathway as part of the medical school’s academic project graduation requirements, in which students explore a health-related issue and receive mentorship from the medical school. faculty.

Typically, the strongest support had been provided to students who engaged in research, international work or clinical work for the purposes of their university project, according to Oriol. There was no existing path in the project guidelines that specifically encouraged student engagement in the greater Boston area.

“It wasn’t always that the medical establishment saw this type of work as a currency for scholarship,” Oriol said. “Last year taught us that this is critical medical research – that the structural racism that has impacted people’s health is not part of the way we tend to talk about medicine. . “

“The consequences of the systematic devaluation of communities, of underfunding, has led to a health landscape that must be addressed,” she added.

Oriol explained that the office intends to develop a website that will serve as a centralized hub for listing community engagement resources and mentoring opportunities for students and faculty to use.

“Harvard has always allowed 1,000 flowers to flourish – which is a beautiful thing – but organizing it in such a way that it is usable by both students, the community, and the faculty is one the first things we need to do, ”she said.

Oriol added that she believes public service engagement is crucial in training medical staff to provide healthcare to a diverse population of individuals, especially those from marginalized groups disproportionately affected by health issues.

“This is an extremely important basis for training doctors ready to treat all patients – doctors ready to understand the impact of the context of the patient’s life on what they can do,” said Oriol.

– Editor-in-chief Ariel H. Kim can be contacted at [email protected]

– Editor Anjeli R. Macaranas can be contacted at [email protected]