Residency Program in Social Medicine: Orientation Month 2008
US Incarceration Rates Stratified by Race
Each October our Residency Program in Social Medicine does something rather unusual. We take our interns off the hospital wards to participate in “Orientation Month.” For four weeks they learn about social medicine and the Bronx, the place in which they are practicing medicine. They are introduced to the philosophy, theoretical framework, and practice of Social Medicine through a curriculum of didactic and experiential learning. The month emphasizes a biopsychosocial perspective that integrates patients, their communities, and the medical system into a holistic view of health problems. At the conclusion of the month residents present a synopsis of the clinical problem they have studied and develop a proposal to address its social determinants.
This year the overall theme of the Orientation month was The Impact of Violence on Clinical Practice. We explored this through three cases: one involved a patient who had been incarcerated, the second a case of domestic violence and the third an immigrant. These cases were tightly integrated into a series of activities that included visits to prisons (Riker’s Island and Sing Sing), community organizations, community centers (e.g. the Bronx Community Pride Center), local businesses (such as botanicas) and Bronx institutions such as the Botanical Gardens and the Bronx Museum. The interns also learned practical skills such as how to perform a medical evaluation of an ayslum seeker and how to do community organizing (a workshop taught by Steve Max of the Midwest Academy).
On Tuesday, November 18th the interns presented their work as part of our regularly scheduled Social Medicine Rounds. A standing room only crowd listened as they shared what they had learned and made a a variety of project proposals. Their presentation can be downloaded as a Powerpoint. While the Powerpoint does not capture the richness of their actual presentation, it suggests the themes they explored and learned about.
Posted by Matt Anderson, MD
Good afternoon doctor.
Is there a post graduate medical training program ?
I am interested.
jorge tamano,md
Dear Dr. Tamano,
Dear Jorge,
We have a residency program in social medicine. To read more about it, click on the “DFSM” tab on the Social Medicine Portal:
http://www.socialmedicine.org/department-of-family-social-medicine/
The official site of the Residency Program is:
http://www.aecom.yu.edu/dfsm/page.aspx?id=447&ekmensel=176_submenu_202_btnlink
Best, Matt Anderson, MD