title: Exposing medical students to expanding populations.
abstract: Physicians are required to advocate for and counsel patients based on the best science and the interests of the individual while avoiding discrimination, ensuring equal access to health and mental services. Nonetheless, the communication gap between physician and patients has long been observed. To this end, the Institute for the Public Understanding of Health and Medicine of the Rutgers University New Jersey Medical School has expanded its efforts. This report describes two new programs: a legacy lecture series for medical students and an international "experience", in Huancayo, Peru, for medical students and faculty. The MiniMed outreach program, now in its ninth year and first described in this journal in 2012, was designed to empower the powerless to communicate more effectively with clinicians, thus improving both the effectiveness of the physician-patient relationship and health care outcomes. The approach of the two new programs and their effects on patients, particularly the underserved, and medical students and faculty, are outlined in the following article.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Institute for the Public Understanding of Health and Medicine, Newark, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA ; Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Lindenthal
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation, University of New Mexico Health Science Center, Albuquerque, NM, USA.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: DeLisa
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: G F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Heinrich
authors.affiliation: Hospital Nacional Ramiro Prialé, EsSalud, Huancayo, Peru.
authors.forename: W S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Calderón Gerstein
keywords: Kintock Group; MiniMed program; Newark Renaissance House; equal access; role modeling; underserved populations
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