The Prisma Health Internal Medicine-Pediatrics residency program is committed to training physicians to provide exceptional, culturally-compassionate care for diverse populations regardless of factors including age, ethnicity, gender, race, religious commitment, sexual orientation, physical ability, gender identity or socioeconomic background. Dr. Russ Kolarik, our Program Director, is a member of the Prisma Health Upstate’s Enhancing the Practice of Medicine (EPM) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. This committee meets periodically to discuss ways to awaken and educate clinicians to the importance of understanding and working with those that are different from themselves. In addition, Dr. Sen Ravindran, one of our Associate Program Directors, was just appointed as Chair for Diversity and Outreach for the South Carolina ACP Governor’s Council.
As Med-Peds physicians, cross-training in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, our visibility in the health system and our departmental strength give us the opportunity to be champions of inclusive excellence and diversity of all types. Our program strives to recruit diverse residents reflective of our community served. Thirty percent of our residents are minorities and, of those, 20% are underrepresented in medicine. Our underrepresented minority residents have provided excellent new ideas and unique perspectives to improve overall patient care to our institution.
Training medical students and residents to care for a diverse patient population must be addressed at multiple levels. Here is a sampling of opportunities available to our Med-Peds residents.
Care of Diverse Populations
1. Black/African American and Latinx populations –The Center for Pediatric Medicine (CPM) and the Internal Medicine Clinics (IMC) continuity clinic sites afford residents the opportunity to serve diverse populations. Interested residents have the opportunity to get involved with quality improvement or other research projects in this area. Based on 2017 data, our IMC population is composed of 42% Black/African American, 4% Hispanic, 53% White patients while CPM is composed of 27% Black/African American, 35% Hispanic (though 2018 data reflects that this has increased to approximately 45%), and 32% White patients.
2. Immigrant Health – Recently, Dr. Julie Linton, the Co-Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Immigrant Health Special Interest Group and member of the AAP Executive Committee for the Council on Community Pediatrics, joined the faculty and is championing initiatives that seek to advance health equity with a focus on children in immigrant families. Specifically, Linton is involved with the Perinatal Awareness for Successful Outcomes (PASOS) and notably will present on this topic during the 27th annual Deloache Seminar this November.
3. Community Health Summit– This is a community health education initiative held every year by Prisma Health Upstate in April, and attended by community members, trainees, and health professionals. The Summit’s purpose is to engage, equip and educate about major health threats and disparities that disproportionately affect many lives in our community. In 2017, Dr. Kizer Stovall (Class of 2019, Internal Medicine) spoke at the summit about the obstacles and discrimination faced on her path to becoming a physician as an African American female.
Educational Initiatives
1. Resident Noon Conference Series – 2018-2019 noon conference series this fall includes conferences on Implicit Bias training/Cultural competence (Dr. Scott Porter, President of the Levi Kirkland Society, VP of Equity and Inclusion) and LGBTQ outpatient care (Molly Benedum, chair of the LGBTQ collaborative – Dept of Family Medicine).
2. LGBTQ Patient Care Initiative –The Prisma Health patient care collaborative is tasked with improving access and quality of care for LGBTQ patients in all settings. Drs. Sarah Hinton and Michael Guyton, Prisma Health Med-Peds graduates of the Class of 2014, are growing our Adolescent Outpatient Clinic and curriculum. Dr. Gutyon, completed his adolescent medicine fellowship at Mount Sinai in New York City this year, will provide LGBTQ sensitive care, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and cross hormone therapy.
Professional Development
1. Levi Kirkland Sr., MD Society – We encourage involvement in this society, whose mission is to collaborate with individuals and institutions to facilitate the success of healthcare educators, administrators and providers as they work to improve the compassionate, innovative and quality-filled care provided to our minority communities. They also provide mentorship and scholarships for medical students at USC-SOM Greenville. To join the society, email the Prisma Health Diversity department at Diversity@prismahealth.org.
2. Mentorship Opportunities – Interested residents can find or become mentors through various avenues including the Levi Kirkland Sr., MD Society, MedEx Academy (a popular undergraduate program to expose diverse group of premedical students to multiple health care fields), and at the USC-SOM Greenville through our growing Med-Peds Interest Group or other student groups such as Student National Medical Association (SNMA), Latino Medical Student Association, LGBTQ Health Interest group, and more.
3. Opportunity for QI projects, Community and Global Health Electives — Interested residents can participate in a number of initiatives. In the past, our trainees have pursued opportunities ranging from an elective on border medicine and environmental health (Dr. Sarah Hinton, Class of 2014, the South Texas Environmental Education and Research (STEER) program), global health electives in Brazil and Guatemala (popular among residents; Brazil trip led for greater than 10 years by Dr. Jeremy Byrd, Prisma Health Med-Peds Class of 2009), and more. Dr. Lece Webb (pictured left), MP class of 2019 won first place at the 2018 SC ACP meeting for her project entitled “Social Determinants Assessment and Addressing Health Care Disparities: Ambulatory curricular integration to improve resident’s care.”
4. Bilingual Employee Translator Program – Residents who are proficient in Spanish can become certified to act as their own interpreter (Dr. Ryan Dean, Chief Resident, and Dr. Luke Burton, current resident have both completed this). Note: link works while in network.
Important sites and resources
GHS Commitment to Diversity
Talk with the Docs – Dr. Cedrek McFadden, Colo-Rectal Surgeon and Vice President of Programs for the Levi Kirkland Society, hosts a social media talk show discussing common primary care topics. Past episodes are available for viewing.
Hispanic Alliance – Greenville, SC
For more information, please contact our Associate Program Director, Senthuran Ravindran – Senthuran.Ravindran@prismahealth.org. He will facilitate meetings or mentorship with former graduates and current residents
