Health of the Homeless, created by three UBC MD students, is an online resource, which aims to help future healthcare professionals feel more comfortable working with patients from marginalized populations.
When it comes to making an impact towards a healthier future for all – UBC Faculty of Medicine students have what it takes. A handful of students received top recognition as participants of this year’s Public Health Learning Tools Challenge, an initiative of the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC).
This year, nearly 100 healthcare professional learners from across Canada participated in the Challenge, which tasks participants with creating innovative learning and teaching tools to enhance preventative and public health education in universities and colleges across the nation.
A panel of judges, made up of public health physicians, medical educators, students and residents, selected 13 award winners. First prize ($2500) was awarded to our very own Faculty of Medicine students Golden Gao, Alyssa Kim, and Alisha Zacharias. Their learning tool, Health of the Homeless, is an online resource, complete with narratives, digital media and statistics. Its aim is to help future healthcare professionals feel more comfortable working with patients from marginalized populations, specifically those who are homeless.
Goa, Kim and Zacharias also developed the learning module with the goal of helping learners to:
- develop an understanding of complex health problems associated with the homeless experience, and
- understand that patient advocacy can come in many forms and need not be confined to government policies.
UBC Internal Medicine Residents and Challenge participants, Dr. Meghan Ho, Dr. Calvin Ke, and Dr. Terence Yung, also received top recognition, earning third prize ($1,000) for their project, Virtual Patient Case – Voice of the North. Their project is a virtual-learning patient case on public and population health targeted at the level of fourth-year Canadian medical students.
A national working group will now consolidate, adapt and translate the various learning tools, while considering how they might be further developed and disseminated. Financial support for the Challenge was provided by the Public Health Agency of Canada.