AFMRD DIVERSITY AND HEALTH EQUITY TASK FORCE UPDATE

As of July 1, 2019, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Common Program Requirements stipulate that, “The program, in partnership with its Sponsoring Institution, must engage in practices that focus on mission-driven, ongoing, systematic recruitment and retention of a diverse and inclusive workforce of residents, fellows (if present), faculty members, senior administrative staff members, and other relevant members of its academic community.”¹ Additionally, the ACGME requires residency programs to “understand the social determinants of health of the populations they serve and incorporate them in the design and implementation of the program curriculum, with the ultimate goal of addressing these needs and health disparities.”² In anticipation of these future requirements, the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors (AFMRD) Board of Directors sanctioned the formation of a Diversity and Health Equity Task Force in September 2018. In January of 2019, the AFMRD Board of Directors approved the task force’s charter with the following objectives:

1. Analyze baseline demographic data, collected via the Council of Academic Family Medicine (CAFM) Leadership Project, to make recommendations about leadership development activities to increase diversity in the leadership pipeline

2. Identify opportunities for delivering Health Equity education to program directors and associate program directors

3. Develop health equity educational resources (Curriculum or Curricular guide) for residency programs

4. Identify opportunities to support programs in understanding and educating residents about biases, both implicit and explicit as well as structural competence

5. Identify options to support family medicine residency programs in meeting the ACGME requirement regarding ensuring a diverse workforce

Following approval of the charter, a call for task force volunteers went out to the AFMRD membership. The first meeting of the Diversity and Health Equity Task Force took place at the American Academy of Family Physicians’ Program Director’s Workshop (PDW) and Residency Program Solutions (RPS) Symposium in April of 2019. The following individuals graciously volunteered to serve on this task force: James Haynes, MD, (Chair); Paul Ravenna, MD; Sarah Cole, DO; Fadya El Rayess, MD, MPH; Gail Y. Floyd, MD; Rachel Friedman, MD; Jessica Guh, MD; Cara Marshall, MD; Ildi Martonffy, MD; Leon McCrea, MD, MPH; Theresa Nevarez, MD, MBA; Mark Rastetter, MD; Suki Tepperberg, MD, MPH; Santina Wheat, MD, MPH; and Deanne St. George (AFMRD Executive Director).

The Task Force has met via teleconferencing approximately every 6 to 8 weeks and has developed or completed the following initiatives:

• Recommendation to PDW-RPS Planning Committee to select a plenary topic/speaker related to diversity and how diversity affects the community of family medicine and residency training programs

• One of AFMRD’s PDW-RPS promised sessions will be a panel presentation focused on implicit bias

• At the task force’s suggestion, the AAFP Center of Diversity and Health Equity will present information regarding the AAFP Health Equity Toolkit and utilization techniques at the 2020 PDW and RPS meeting

• A full review of diversity and health equity resources available to members in AFMRD’s Program Director Toolbox will occur with subsequent plans to add any critical resources currently missing

• Consider and codify new ways to deliver diversity and health equity content to members including the AFMRD online discussion forum and the Program Director Toolbox

The AFMRD Diversity and Health Equity Task Force encourages program directors and faculty to attend sessions on diversity and health equity at the AAFP’s 2020 PDW and RPS. The AFMRD Board of Directors is excited to sponsor up to 3 individuals for the AAFP Health Equity Fellowship this year, all of whom should attend the 2020 meeting. As the chairperson of AFMRD’s Diversity and Health Equity Task Force, I urge each of you to consider how you can contribute to your institution’s efforts to recruit and retain a diverse workforce, which can engage in efforts to provide quality, equitable health care to the families in your community.

• © 2019 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.