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In This Issue:
Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities
On Friday, October 5, there was a full crowd on hand in the Bornstein Amphitheater to celebrate the announcement of BWH’s newest addition to the Department of Medicine – the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities.
The Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities will address the disparities in care among poor and marginalized populations both in the United States and abroad. Through the creation of this new division, BWH will challenge assumptions and develop solutions for unequal access to medical care. This unique division will combine a breadth of experience in the social sciences – anthropology, history, sociology, statistics and economics – with the clinical scientific resources of an academic medical center.
The division’s mission includes addressing inequalities in disease burden and in treatment outcomes, educating BWH trainees as well as physicians from the United States and other countries in health disparities research and service, and providing a clinical platform for identifying underserved patients likely to benefit from more aggressive management of acute and chronic disease.
The Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities will be led by Jim Kim, MD, PhD, who will serve as chief. Paul Farmer, MD, PhD and Howard Hiatt, MD, will serve as deputy chiefs.
Several social medicine research projects, now incorporated under the division’s umbrella, have been in existence at BWH for as long as 15 years. Four of these projects were presented during the Grand Rounds ceremony. Researchers captivated the audience with an overview of their work, which discussed modern plagues and covered a vast geographic region as far away as Peru and Haiti. In addition to the work that has already begun, the division will encompass the following principal activities: