How can medical schools contribute to bringing about health equity?
File(s)
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The role of medical schools is in a process of change. The World Health Organization has declared that they can no longer be ivory towers whose primary focus is the production of specialist physicians and cutting edge laboratory research. They must also be socially accountable and direct their activities towards meeting the priority health concerns of the areas they serve. The agenda must be set in partnership with stakeholders including governments, health care organisations and the public. The concept of social accountability has particular resonance for the Bar Ilan Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee, Israel’s newest medical school, which was established with a purpose of reducing health inequities in the Region. As a way of exploring and understanding the issues, discussions were held with international experts in the field who visited the Galilee. A symposium involving representatives from other medical schools in Israel was also held to extend the discourse. Deliberations that took place are reported here. The meaning of social accountability was discussed, and how it could be achieved. Three forms of action were the principal foci - augmentation of the medical curriculum, direct action through community engagement and political advocacy. A platform was set for taking the social accountability agenda forward, with the hope that it will impact on health inequalities in Israel and contribute to discussions elsewhere.
Date Issued
2014-05-27
Date Acceptance
2014-05-14
Citation
Israel Journal of Health Policy Research, 2014, 3
ISSN
2045-4015
Publisher
BioMed Central
Journal / Book Title
Israel Journal of Health Policy Research
Volume
3
Copyright Statement
© 2014 Rudolf et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
License URL
Identifier
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=4046153&tool=pmcentrez&rendertype=abstract
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Health Policy & Services
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Health Care Sciences & Services
Social accountability
Health inequalities
Health inequity
Medical schools
Medical curriculum
Medical education
Community engagement
Advocacy
Advocacy
Community engagement
Health inequalities
Health inequity
Medical curriculum
Medical education
Medical schools
Social accountability
Notes
file: :G$$:/Prof Blair/Publications by Mitch Blair/2045-4015-3-17.pdf:pdf keywords: Social accountability,Health inequalities,Health i,advocacy,community engagement,education,health inequalities,health inequity,medical,medical curriculum,medical schools,social accountability pmid: 24904745
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
17