To address public health inequities, first-year primary care residents at Montefiore Health System take a month-long class to become more aware of the causes of health-related disparities and to learn strategies for addressing them. The social justice curriculum, called Social Medicine Immersion Month (SMIM), was recently revamped to include input from non-medical community members. 

Former Albert Einstein College of Medicine resident physicians Robert Rock, M.D., M.H.S., Vanessa Ferrel, M.D., Chanelle Diaz, M.D., M.P.H., and Luis Gonzalez Corro, M.D., mentored by Iman Hassan, M.D., M.S., and Oladimeji Oki, M.D., describe the design of the revamped SMIM and its impact on residents in a paper published online on August 7 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Course leaders generated topics through discussions with community leaders who identified structures affecting local health behaviors and outcomes. They also highlighted health-related social needs within the Bronx that had been missing from the previous course. Following participation in SMIM, residents exhibited increased critical consciousness, competency, comfort, and self-reported behaviors.

Dr. Hassan is an associate professor of medicine at Einstein and is an attending physician at Montefiore. Dr. Oki is an assistant professor and associate director of medical student education in the department of family and social medicine at Einstein and is an attending physician at Montefiore.