title: A strategy for improving health disparities education in medicine.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A health disparities curriculum that uses evidence-based knowledge rooted in pedagogic theory is needed to educate health care providers to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse U.S. population.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Health Disparities Education: Beyond Cultural Competency Precourse, along with its accompanying Train the Trainer Guide: Health Disparities Education (2008), developed by the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) Disparities Task Force (DTF), is a comprehensive tool to facilitate developing, implementing and evaluating health disparities education. The curriculum includes five modules highlighting several fundamental concepts in health disparities, suggestions for teaching about health disparities in a wide range of settings and strategies for curriculum evaluation. The modules are Disparities Foundations, Teaching Disparities in the Clinical Setting, Disparities Beyond the Clinical Setting, Teaching about Disparities Through Community Involvement, and Curriculum Evaluation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All five modules were delivered as a precourse at the 31st Annual SGIM Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA and received the "Best Precourse Award". This award is given to the most highly rated precourse based on participant evaluations. The modules have also been adapted into a web-based guide that has been downloaded at least 59 times.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Ultimately, the modules are designed to develop a professional commitment to eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health care quality, promote an understanding of the role of health care providers in reducing health care disparities through comprehensive education and training, and provide a framework with which providers can address the causes of disparities in various educational settings.
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Paula T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.forename: Crystal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wiley Cené
authors.forename: Jada
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bussey-Jones
authors.forename: Arleen F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Dionne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Blackman
authors.forename: Alicia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.forename: Leonor
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.forename: Susan B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Glick
authors.forename: Carol R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Horowitz
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Jacobs
authors.forename: Monica E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Peek
authors.forename: Luann
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wilkerson
authors.forename: Monica L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Lypson
mesh_terms: D054521:Cultural Competency / Q000193:education*; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000379:methods*; D054625:Healthcare Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education*