George Washington University Launches Health Equity Training Series for Clinicians

Program to kick off with webinar featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning racial scholar

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) is launching a nine-month Two in One: HIV + COVID Screening and Testing Model next month with a moderated webinar discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning racial scholar Nikole Hannah-Jones.

The webinar, titled "Confronting U.S. History: We must end RACISM to end health disparities," is a free, CME-bearing moderated discussion that will relate the history of U.S. slavery to poor health outcomes among Black sub-populations, and will explore the enduring impact of racism as an ongoing threat to health equity. The webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, January 11^th from 12 – 1 p.m. ET. Anyone can register for the event here.

"We are excited to kick off our program with this important conversation," said Maranda Ward, principal investigator of the Two in One Model and assistant professor of clinical research and leadership at The George Washington University. "Understanding the significant historical influences of slavery and racism on health disparities experienced by Black communities is crucial to building a foundation for real change in the health of Black Americans."

This webinar is the first in the Two in One Model training series, which will include a range of topics that historicize and contextualize HIV and COVID disparities among BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ populations. The Two in One Model is a national educational effort designed with a combined health and racial equity lens for U.S. primary care practitioners (PCPs) to routinize HIV screening and COVID-19 vaccine screening for all of their patients. It also provides capacity-building support for PCPs to engage in culturally responsive communication on HIV and COVID vaccines.

The two-part training series will offer nine live-streamed, continuing medical education (CME) monthly lectures as well as an asynchronous CME-bearing module-based training course and toolkit. The series will culminate in a symposium focused on translating the knowledge gained from the speaker series into policy-based and practice-based action. Students who attend training webinars will be eligible to receive a certificate of completion for each event.

The webinar is sponsored by the GW SMHS Two in One Model in partnership with the GW SMHS Office of Diversity & Inclusion and the Meharry Medical College and funded by Gilead Sciences inc. For more information on this research-informed model, visit the Two-in-One website at: twoinone.smhs.gwu.edu.

SOURCE The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences