Utsha Khatri’s first exposure to medicine was from the perspective of treating the underserved. She believes that multiple factors influence a patient’s prospects for good health — education, stress, access to healthy foods, etc. — and that quality care demands all such factors be considered during the development of a treatment plan. Physicians, Khatri says, have a responsibility to promote the well-being of not just their individual patients, but of their communities as well.
For these reasons, Khatri, a second-year medical student at GW’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS), has chosen to follow the Community/Urban Health (CUH) track during her medical education.
The CUH track is one of nine elective paths offered to medical students by the Office of Student Opportunities. Through distinct learning objectives, special seminars, one-on-one mentorship, and hands-on experience, the track program offers students a broader health care perspective and exposure to leadership opportunities.
Khatri cites her summer experience at Columbia Road Health Services, a federally qualified community health center that provides medical care, social services, and mental health counseling to Washington, D.C.’s most vulnerable residents, as a particularly meaningful aspect of her experience in the CUH track. At the clinic, she worked on a program aimed at reducing obesity in low-income patients and says that it gave her “the opportunity to meet and work with members of my own community, while also learning of the personal, social, cultural, and medical barriers that prevent individuals from living healthier lives and reaching their full potential.”
Lisa Alexander, Ed.D., assistant dean for Community-Based Partnerships and Interim Chair and program director for the Physician Assistant Program at SMHS, serves as the track director for the CUH track. “We try to provide the students with an overview of what is important for them to know about the D.C. community — the types of people who reside in the District, the challenges and barriers to care at the local level,” Alexander says. “But we also expose them to the federal programs that D.C. residents take advantage of in order to access care, as well as the health policy issues that are projected to impact their careers as clinicians.”
Alexander says that the track typically attracts students who have previously studied public health or have had a lived experience in a particular community, either cultural or geographic, that has made them sensitive to the health care needs of disadvantaged populations. “Many of these students have seen up close and personal the impact of health inequities,” she says. “We try to emphasize for them how the issues of health equity can traverse all medical specialties.”
In addition to clinical volunteer opportunities, the CUH track incorporates a lecture series throughout the academic year. This year’s lectures will cover a range of topics, including the health insurance system, the emergency room as the city’s default primary care provider, and specific issues at the community health level, such as heart disease, breast cancer, and HIV.
As in most years, Randi Abramson, M.D., Medical Clinical Director at Bread for the City, will speak to students on the CUH track. “She talks about how she chose this field and helps students understand that loan repayment options make it a viable career track,” Alexander says. Olga Acosta Price, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Prevention and Community Health at GW’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, will also address the students regarding mental health issues that arise in the community setting.
Khatri says she has been pleased with her experience in the CUH track and highly recommends that incoming medical students consider it. “Especially future physicians who believe that all individuals should have the right to quality health care and health outcomes,” she says.
