ALiEM Stands in Solidarity with Our Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Community

We at ALiEM wholeheartedly condemn the xenophobia, intolerance, and hate crimes directed towards Asians and the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. Recent events spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic are hurtful, “othering,” and simply unacceptable.

Anti-Asian hate crimes across the country since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic have increased 833% in 2020, compared to 2019, in cities across the United States [1]. This heart-breaking trend of violent assaults against individuals in the AAPI community is misguided and counter to the healing and building that our country direly needs as a result of the global pandemic.

Last week’s shootings in the Atlanta area that claimed the lives of eight people, including six Asian women, have had devastating effects on the AAPI community. For some, it has sparked recollections of previous incidences of bias they themselves have experienced. For others, it has been a call to action, on how to be better advocates and allies for all people of color.

We stand in solidarity with our AAPI communities and allies. These hate crimes continue to highlight the ongoing and longstanding structural anti-Asian and anti-immigrant racism in our country. Each of us has the capacity to show kindness, compassion, and respect for one another. Each of us has the capacity to stand up for those tormented and racialized. Let us work together to overcome the hate and bigotry that plague our nation.

 

What can you do to be an ally?

 

References

  1. VOA News: Hate Crimes Targeting Asian Americans Spiked by 150% in Major US Cities

AAPI solidarity statement

By |2021-03-28T10:19:46-07:00Mar 26, 2021|Life, Public Health|

Teaching LGBTQ+ Health: 10 Clinical Pearls

lgbtq+ health teaching course

Are you confident in your skills when taking care of LGBTQ+ patients? Are you able to teach principles of LGBTQ+ health to trainees in your clinical practice and the classroom setting? Learners across the health professions demand improved LGBTQ+ health content and additional training opportunities in their schools’ curricula. However, most clinician educators received little, if any, training in LGBTQ+ health when they were students.

10 Clinical Pearls on Teaching About LGBTQ+ Health

The following are some sneak-peak clinical pearls from the Teaching LGBTQ+ Health online course that just launched. This open access, interactive, CME course was published in conjunction with National LGBT Health Awareness Week (March 22-26, 2021). It was developed by Stanford Medicine and designed by Dr. Michael Gisondi (Stanford Emergency Medicine), Timothy Keyes (Stanford SOM), Shana Zucker (Tulane SOM), and Deila Bumgardner (Stanford EdTech) in collaboration with the Medical Student Pride Alliance

  1. LGTBQ+ health encompasses so much more than the historical, one-dimensional portrayals of gay men previously used to teach about HIV/AIDS.
  2. Treat your LGBTQ+ patients with dignity and respect by correctly using LGBTQ+ health vocabulary. 
  3. Language is both fluid and deeply personal—not all LGBTQ+ patients refer to themselves with similar terms, and the ways in which these terms are used may change over time.
  4. Sex, gender, and sexual orientation are related but distinct concepts. 
  5. Intersecting minority statuses have a synergistic effect on the health and health-seeking behaviors of LGBTQ+ patients.
  6. The CDC recommends the use of ‘The 5 P’s of Sexual Health’ framework for obtaining a sexual history.
  7. In accordance with the PARTNER2 study, ‘undetectable = untransmittable.’
  8. Compliance with PrEP (pre exposure prophylaxis) for HIV reduces the risk of acquiring HIV by approximately 99%.
  9. Transmasculine patients seek routine primary care and Pap testing less frequently than cisgender patients.
  10. Create inclusive clinical environments that are affirming to queer patients, staff, and students.

Online Course: Teaching LGBTQ+ Health

Teaching LGBTQ+ Health is a new, online, faculty development course designed to bridge the gap between the expectation of faculty teaching competency and a lack of previous training. The intended audience includes educators across the health professions, though the content is also made freely available to all providers, students, patients, and other interested individuals.

This course serves as an introductory primer that assumes no prior knowledge of LGBTQ+ health issues. The course includes both LGBTQ+ health content and recommendations for teaching this material to trainees in any discipline or clinical department. Educators may freely download portions of the course for use in their daily clinical teaching or their school’s curriculum.

This online course is divided into modules that review topics such as LGBTQ+ Vocabulary, Social and Behavioral Determinants of Queer Health, Disease Prevention, and Teaching Strategies, among others. A comprehensive glossary of key terms and 3 interactive, clinical case examples are provided to reinforce key concepts. The entire course is evidence-based and extensive references to medical literature are provided. 

If you learn something new by from our course, we respectfully ask that you share the course within your clinical department and with a few colleagues outside your institution.

By |2021-03-19T10:57:09-07:00Mar 23, 2021|CME, Public Health|

ALiEM Statement Against Racism

ALiEM Statement Against Racism

Illustration by Dr. Moises Gallegos

Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM) stands in solidarity with emergency physicians and learners in denouncing the structural racism and acts of violence that disproportionately affect persons of color. ALiEM denounces the senseless death of George Floyd which adds to the ever-rising numbers of deaths among Black men and women. The dissemination of the now-viral video documenting Mr. Floyd’s last desperate moments has brought a renewed public awareness to a disease that has for far too long afflicted this nation. We see the injustice and disparities in healthcare that are made even more visible during the COVID-19 pandemic. ALiEM is committed to taking action against racism and discrimination and joins the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM), and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) in urging frontline healthcare providers, educators, and leaders to promote a safe, equitable, and inclusive learning and patient care environment in emergency medicine. We support diversity in free and open access to medical education and uphold efforts to embrace our common humanity.

By |2020-06-01T16:43:29-07:00Jun 2, 2020|Public Health|

Health Insurance 101 for the Emergency Physician

A 28 year-old single man with type I diabetes mellitus presents to your busy Texas emergency department in diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). This is his third hospitalization for DKA in 5 months. When you ask the patient about his current medication regimen, he admits that he frequently skips doses as a cost-savings measure. He shares that he works 45 hours a week at a small local grocery store, makes minimum wage ($15,660 pretax), and has no health insurance. His prescribed insulin regimen, consisting of Lantus at bedtime and Humalog with meals, costs approximately $600 a month. This cost estimate is based on 25 units of nightly Lantus and 25 total units of Humalog daily from GoodRx advertised list prices for the San Antonio area.

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By |2019-04-10T23:14:19-07:00Apr 10, 2019|Public Health, Public Policy|

Influenza Update: IDSA 2018 Guidelines Detailed Review

influenza

Symptomatic influenza A and B infections cause worldwide morbidity and mortality every year. Annual vaccination remains the greatest prophylactic measure, but the vaccine is not 100% effective due to mismatch between the circulating and vaccine virus strains. Although most individuals will recover from influenza without incident, some specific patient populations are at high risk for severe complications. The Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) recently updated their clinical practice guidelines.1 We review these key updates, including recommendations on who to test, treat, and provide chemoprophylaxis.

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ALiEM Book Club: Medical Apartheid

Rallies by white supremacists in Charlottesville, VA and the subsequent milquetoast response from the White House shocked many Americans. These events invoked a national discussion about how many of our public monuments, built to celebrate triumphs and critical moments from our country’s past, can also exhibit appalling acts of malevolence and cruelty, treatment that today is unacceptable. Similarly, our understanding of medical history has evolved. While many of us are aware of particular atrocities, such as the Tuskegee study or the nonconsensual obtaining of Hela cells from Henrietta Lacks, these stories are by no means isolated, and there are times in our country’s history in which harm was bestowed upon vulnerable populations, especially African Americans. Medical Apartheid unveils the long history of medical experimentation performed on African Americans and highlights some of the origins of our country’s health disparities. We provide a synopsis and discuss the book in greater detail on the Google Hangout below.

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By |2018-02-20T18:50:55-08:00Jan 5, 2018|Book Club, Public Health|

What is International Emergency Medicine?

International globe canstockphoto15369311First and foremost, international emergency medicine (IEM) is a big tent. We’ve got clinicians with an interest in tropical medicine and trauma, systems experts, inventors, educators, missionary families, public health experts, thrill-seekers, and policymakers. A disaster response specialist who has a “go bag” packed at all times ready for deployment belongs in this tent, as does an epidemiologist based in the U.S. who analyzes data on cholera outbreaks in refugee camps. Because it’s a relatively new specialty there is the occasional squabble about what does and does not constitute IEM, but generally we agree that we are working together to improve the state of health for people in our world. Our specialty allows us to work in a multitude of settings and clinical environments, something that no other specialty can do.

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By |2016-10-26T17:04:22-07:00Dec 17, 2015|Medical Education, Public Health|
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