WASHINGTON (May 14, 2012) – This week, several members of the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) community will participate in the Beyond Flexner: Social Mission in Medical Education conference, focusing on the role of the social mission in the future of U.S. medical education. The conference will address the inclusion of health equity and social determinants of health in the educational and training curricula of future physicians and health care professionals. It will take place May 15-17 in Tulsa, Okla. and is geared toward physicians, medical students, and health care leaders from across the United States.
Conference participants from the SMHS include: Candice Chen, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy; Elizabeth Wiley, J.D., M.P.H., a fourth-year GW medical student and national president elect, American Medical Student Association; Fitzhugh Mullan, M.D., Murdock Head Professor of Medicine and Health Policy; and Malika Fair, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of Emergency Medicine.
Other notable speakers will include David Stacher, M.D., Ph.D., former U.S. Surgeon General; H. Jack Geiger, M.D., professor emeritus, Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education; Eric Whitaker, M.D., M.P.H., University of Chicago Urban Health Initiative; Karen DeSalvo, M.D., M.P.H., health commissioner, City of New Orleans; Pedro Jose “Joe” Greer, M.D., assistant dean of Academic Affairs, Florida International University College of Medicine; Claire Pomeroy, M.D., M.B.A., dean, UC Davis School of Medicine; and Paul Grundy, M.D., M.P.H., global director of Health Care Transformation, IBM Corporation.
The Flexner Report was a 1910 Carnegie Foundation-funded study of medical education authored by educator Abraham Flexner, which created a model for training American physicians that is still in use today. The Beyond Flexner conference comes at a time with when national leaders, businesses, and the American public must confront continued national health care challenges, including an acute physician shortage — particularly in primary care; an under-representation of minority physicians; and a pending U.S. Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of 2010 health reform legislation.
The conference will serve as the capstone to a W.K. Kellogg Foundation-funded study at the George Washington University: the Beyond Flexner Study. Led by Fitzhugh Mullan, M.D., investigators explored the unintended consequences of the Flexner Report, and focused on innovative models of medical education that address the social mission.
GW is a co-sponsor of this event, along with the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine School of Community Medicine Track, the George Kaiser Family Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and The University of Tulsa.
