Over one quarter of adults living in the United States have a disability.1 Barriers to accessible and equitable healthcare contribute to healthcare disparities for disabled patients.2 Further, physicians report decreased confidence in their ability to care for disabled patients and hold ableist views regarding their disabled patients’ needs and quality of life.3 Ableism is discrimination and prejudice against people with disabilities, and negatively impacts healthcare delivery and health outcomes. Despite the prevalence of health disparities experienced by disabled patients and lack of physician knowledge, only 52% of accredited allopathic and osteopathic US medical schools report including “disability awareness” content in their curricula.4 Disability content is not a required competency within medical education and thus, 80% of surveyed medical students at a single institution felt that the disability education they received was inadequate.5 Specifically, students “reported feeling less comfortable obtaining a history, performing a physical exam, and establishing a differential diagnosis when working with PWD [persons with disabilities].5” To our knowledge, there are currently no widely utilized, standardized resources available to assist medical students, residents, or physicians in obtaining a comprehensive history and physical exam targeted at the disabled patients’ specific needs.

The aim of this study was to assess student perceptions of a novel teaching tool, termed ADEPT-CARE, and students’ perceived confidence in approaching patients with disabilities after exposure to the ADEPT-CARE framework.