Death by ZIP code: When address matters more than genetics

Health inequity has left many communities around the nation with health disparities that are out of their control. Understanding the concept of how socioeconomic and environmental factors play a major role in population health is the most effective way to reshape our traditional health narrative. Anthony Iton, MD, senior vice president of healthy communities at the California Endowment, recently spoke to medical students at the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine during the AMA ’sAccelerating Change in Medical Education consortium meeting on health equity and community-based learning. When Dr. Iton left Montreal years ago for medical school at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, he was given a tour of the city by an upperclassman. As they drove through East Baltimore he was shocked.“East Baltimore looked to me like Beirut,” he said, “with bombed out buildings and cars up on their axels and little mangy dogs running around and babies playing in and amongst all of this and I thought, how is this possible?”“I had never seen anything like this in my life,” he said. “[The upperclassman] saw my mouth agape, and he said, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ And I said, ‘When was there a war here?’”“We conveniently overlook the fact that there has been a narrative in this country,” Dr. Iton said, “and this narrative shapes policy, and that policy creates conditions.”“We of course know what’s happened in Baltimore more recently,” he said. “Fo...
Source: AMA Wire - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Source Type: news