Distinction in Social Medicine and Health Equity

As clinicians, we are primarily trained as direct service providers. While clinical medicine has, at times, the ability to greatly improve an individual patient's life, it remains true that the vast majority of health outcomes are structurally driven. Health is ultimately a product of policy, of who and what is invested in, as policy shapes the environments and institutions through which our patients live their daily lives.

Your training as a physician comes at a time of record, ballooning inequality, stark health disparities, and intersecting crises of housing, healthcare, and climate to name but a few. Each of these structural phenomena is a result of policy decisions, old and new. Each has profound implications for our patients, in particular those already vulnerable and marginalized. This is not to say that things are hopeless. It is rather to stress the urgency with which physicians must build a structural analysis in order to move beyond social service provision to becoming agents of social change.

Program Objectives

Social Medicine “aims to understand how social and economic conditions impact health”. In this distinction, we explore what structural forces created, as well as perpetuate, the existing distribution of life affirming resources.

The Social Medicine Distinction is meant to foster your interest in the ways that policy and structures impact our patients' health outcomes. By its very nature, social medicine touches on a myriad of topics. The distinction is meant to serve as a beginning where you are introduced to some concrete skills, concepts, analysis, and knowledge that will hopefully inspire you to continue on your own long after residency to embrace the role of physician advocate. There is no expectation that you enter the distinction knowing anything. The hope is you participate willing to learn and engage. In doing so, you can build productive critiques of the many systems that fail our patients.

Program Components

The baseline educational content will come through curated readings & question prompts. These will be accessible through Canvas, so that we can post thoughts and questions asynchronously. Readings will be grouped around core topics - with each core topic culminating in an in-person meeting to further process, discuss, and build community.
Distinction Days can be used to complete required readings as well as explore independent social medicine projects with mentorship from the distinction director.
Throughout the distinction, opportunities are available to observe and participate in community engagement at the city, county, and state level.
Throughout the distinction, the director will provide additional optional readings that are timely and thought provoking.
Throughout the distinction, virtual and in person experiences will be made available to engage with a variety of community-based organizations in Atlanta and beyond.
There are likewise numerous opportunities available to engage in social medicine medical education initiatives at the residency level.

Program Requirements

Each of these requirements will come with direct mentorship, guidance, and support from the distinction director.
Complete each assigned reading and submit responses in Canvas.
Attend at least five of 10 in person discussions, as residency schedule allows.
Write a 700-900 word essay which can serve as a space to more explicitly define for yourself the importance of physicians embracing social medicine, reflect on content covered, or explore an area in more depth.
Each participant is expected to submit an abstract to Grady Health Equity Day which is typically held in May of each year.
Each participant is expected to submit a letter to editor.

Program Leadership

Distinction Program Director Mark Spencer, MD

Dr. Spencer is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Grady. His educational, clinical, and community work focus on how the criminal legal system impacts health. As a primary care provider, Dr. Spencer's clinic, Transition Atlanta, is dedicated to the needs of formerly incarcerated patients. He is the creator and director of the optional student curriculum, Policing, Incarceration, and Health. He is the founder and Executive Director of Stop Criminalization Of Our Patients (SCOOP), a community-based organization focused on political education. His community-based partnerships include being a member of the Community Leadership Team at the Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative (PAD) and a core member of the Community over Cages Coalition. He frequently publishes articles on the importance of a structural approach to understanding harm.