UT Southwestern Ethics Grand Rounds

Structural Competency: New Frameworks to Understand and Respond to Inequities in Health

Seth M. Holmes, Ph.D., M.D.

Chancellor's Professor, Division of Society and Enviornment, Department of Enviornmental Science, Policy, and Management and the Joint Ph.D. Program in Medical Anthropology at the University of California - Berkeley and San Francisco

Abstract: Research on disparities in health and in medical care demonstrates that social, economic, and political inequities are key drivers of poor health outcomes. The influence of such inequities on health has long been noted by clinicians and public health practitioners, but such content has been incorportated unevenly into clinical training and clinical ethics. Recently proposed by clinicians, ethicists, and medical social scientists, the framework of "structural competency" offers a paradigm for training health professionals to recognize and respond to the impact upstream, structural factors on patient health and health care. This lecture will cover key terms and primary domains of structural competency to allow medical practitioners, ethicists, and researchers to perceive and respond to social inequities in health in new ways.

CME: This live activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ in medical ethics and/or professional responsibility.

NCPD: UT Southwestern Medical Center is accredited as a provider of nursing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

This activity has been awarded 1.0 contact hour.

For additional information about this lecture, please refer to the announcement.

Contact:

Ruth Vinciguerra | Email