Journal of general internal medicine
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The Journal of General Internal Medicine (JGIM) has a long-standing history of publishing manuscripts focused on health equity and is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in scientific writing and publishing. This is extremely important in the current climate where false narratives and attacks on DEI and health equity are rampant. To demonstrate their commitment to DEI and health equity, the JGIM Editors-in-Chief created an inaugural DEI Advocacy Team. ⋯ The team strives to advocate for diversity among the editorial board and staff; foster an inclusive environment where all contributions are valued; and facilitate increased and equitable opportunities for publishing of scholarly work by underrepresented groups in medicine. To operationalize their goals, the JGIM DEI Advocacy Team created the 5TDEI Conceptual Framework (team, tools, tracking, transparency, training). This perspective provides a statement from the inaugural JGIM DEI Advocacy Team on how we envision promoting health equity, diversity, and inclusion in medical and scientific writing and publishing of research in JGIM.
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Following the birth of Black Lives Matter, USA medical students advocated for greater commitment to health equity from their schools. In response to such concerns, in 2015, the Yale School of Medicine formed a committee for diversity, inclusion, and social justice and a committee on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and intersex affairs. Based on their efforts, our Educational Policy and Curriculum Committee commissioned a student-faculty-led task force to survey the curriculum and make recommendations toward the creation of a health equity curriculum. We conducted a national review of reforms in medical schools' health equity curricula and reviewed health equity content throughout ours. ⋯ We designed best practices for incorporating health equity into the curriculum, and a plan for a health equity thread spanning all its core components. We identified that classroom teaching is not sufficient, and recommended a required experiential learning practicum responsive to community needs. Lastly, we made recommendations regarding faculty and housestaff health equity education given the critical role they play in undergraduate medical education.
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Healthy lifestyle behaviors play a significant role in promoting cardiovascular health. Primary care clinicians (PCCs) are tasked with promoting cardiovascular health through the assessment of lifestyle behaviors and the use of behavior change counseling. ⋯ Our framework proposes that this digital communication bundle contains the following features: assess and analyze an individual's cardiovascular health status; communicate personalized information in a health-literacy-friendly, visual format; assess behavioral components of change (e.g., motivation) that can inform the PCC's approach in guiding behavior change; provide PCCs with brief, behavior change counseling prompts that are grounded in motivational interviewing; and assess and address potential structural, socioeconomic, and environmental barriers, thereby fostering resilience in patients' lifestyle change efforts. We highlight the available research to support the need for such a tool and its potential ability to guide PCCs while also promoting behavior change in a patient-centered manner.