Purpose

The Distinction in Medicine and Social Impact track provides professional and personal development opportunities to strengthen students’ skills in addressing healthcare access and care gaps through a lens of community awareness and responsibility. Scholars participate in monthly discussions and site visits to explore healthcare challenges across populations in the Louisville Metro area. The track emphasizes health humanities, cultural humility, and structural competency, fostering critical thinking and analysis to improve access to quality care.

Objectives

• Explore core principles related to medicine and society.
• Explore the identities that make up who we are and better understand the extent to which these identities impact all we do.
• Increase knowledge of the scope of healthcare gaps in the US healthcare system.
• Deepen student understanding of the dynamics of power at the individual, group, cultural, and systems levels.
• Explore social issues in health by heightening student knowledge and skills in cultural humility and structural competency as it relates to their future practice as physicians.

Student Outcomes

• Attend lectures and complete self-paced modules related to healthcare access and care gaps. 
• Learn critical appraisal skills through exploring and discussing relevant literature together. 
• Use critical reflection to analyze issues in medicine and society within our community. 
• Increase student capacity to work as scholars through information sessions on library skills, IRB and research techniques, etc. 
• Create a specific mentored scholarly project on medicine and social impact. 
• Disseminate scholarly products production (i.e., presentations, publications, white-papers, grants, policy development, etc.) on a local, regional, national, and/or international level. 

Criteria for Selection

Acceptance is based on the student’s previous experience in topics relevant to medicine and society, their career goals, and how the DIMSI track benefits those goals. 

Application Process

Applicants must submit an application and a written response to one of two essay questions. DIMSI leadership will evaluate the applicants and determine acceptance by early spring.