When family medicine leaders increase their understanding of health equity, their programs, residents, and communities’ benefit. AFMRD, with the AAFP, supports 2 health equity fellows annually. This fellowship, established in 2018, helps family physician leaders improve expertise in the social, cultural, and institutional influences on patient health, prioritizing the health of underserved communities and minority groups. We support residency leaders during fellowship to translate the concepts of health equity into clinical practice for their programs. Elizabeth Beiter, MD, and Erin Kavanaugh, MD, completed their health equity fellowships in 2023 and graciously share their experiences.

Dr Beiter is the Associate Program Director with Bethesda Family Medicine Residency Program, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her capstone project was titled Improving Health Equity Now and in the Future: Assessing and Addressing Social Determinants of Health and Creating a Longitudinal Residency Curriculum.

My experience with health equity has been an extension of what I consider core principles of family medicine—understanding and improving the lives of our patients through connection to the patients and communities we serve, evidenced-based care, and continuing education. My goal was to increase my knowledge and confidence teaching and addressing principles of health equity within my program while improving patient care and connection to the community. Little did I know that my experience would be an incredible launchpad for innovation, education and leadership within my practice, my health system, and my community. Through the fellowship and the support of TriHealth and AMFRD, I was exposed to high quality evidence-based education on emerging principles of health equity, coupled with mentorship to implement a capstone project within my organization. There is no question that the impact of health equity principles in outcomes for our patients is large, but how to address these successfully is at the forefront of healthcare innovation. The fellowship’s impact continues to be felt through a longitudinal health equity curriculum in the family medicine program, and system level connection within TriHealth which brought an ongoing partnership with Family medicine, GME and TriHealth’s new Center for Health Equity

Dr Kavanaugh is the interim chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine, program director of Family Medicine Residency and Co-Program Director of the Emergency Medicine/Family Medicine Residency for Christiana Care in Northern Delaware. Her capstone project was titled Impactful Alignment of Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine/Family Medicine Physicians-in-Training Workforce with the Wilmington, Delaware Community.

I am so grateful to AFMRD for supporting my participation in the 2023 AAFP Health Equity fellowship that came at a pivotal time for me. I applied on a whim, thinking I would never make the cut. I wanted to intentionally take time for my own growth and development with a focus on equity. I submitted my application when I was beginning to untangle my thoughts about the COVID-19 pandemic experience. I found the experience so incredibly lonely, which is fascinating since I was surrounded by fantastic academic faculty members and amazing APDs while the program experienced tremendous growth despite systematic obstacles. Nevertheless, it was how I felt. The resident experience of COVID-19 in our broken healthcare system was and remains very nuanced, challenging, heartbreaking and unfair; at the same time, bringing incredible learning, “unprecedented” experiences and impactful realignment of social and generational opinion and posturing on our system and where the boundaries are, and the appropriateness of any of them. I had just completed a program in my community called the Proximity Project for Healthcare and I felt very disconnected from my own lifelong community. As an ideal next step, participation in the health equity fellowship made perfect sense! Committing intentional time, support and focus on things like Health Equity for EveryONE, attendance at NCCL and FMAS programs and time with my cohort members was a refreshing experience. I successfully designed a curriculum for our Mobile Van experience in Wilmington, DE that is still active today.

AFMRD salutes Drs Beiter and Kavanaugh for their incredible work as Health Equity fellows and looks forward to sharing the works of future fellows. We believe educating residency leaders on the importance of health equity principles helps them achieve excellence in residency education.