11. Reducing Disparities & Preventive Medicine’s Impact on COVID-19 - Part 1 of 2

Carl Earl Lambert, Jr., MD, FAAFP, Christina Wells, MD, MPH, FAAFP, and Marian Sassetti, MD, FAAFP host this 2-part podcast series addressing disparities in healthcare and the importance of preventative medicine in reducing them.  The pandemic has brought the curtain down and clearly exposed major disparities we are still facing.  They invite you to join them as they address these issues with honesty, care, and compassion.  

Whoever's listening, we hope that you are inspired, you're educated, and that you hear a little bit about our real-life experiences, and challenges, and troubleshooting with what we would consider to be very hefty topics. We'll do our best to engage you and to treat these topics with care.

We're about two years plus into the COVID-19 pandemic, and the first half of this discussion is really about disparities. 

We are aware that there are different risk factors and different things that led those disparities to be. They didn't just happen on accident, but rather, as we're going to discuss, there's systems at play that tends to harm populations that might be marginalized, or historically aren't getting the things that they need. And certainly, as primary care doctors, we care very deeply about that.

There's a progression. There are steps that were taken decades ago that got us to this point, and we're going to have to take some pretty bold and courageous, intentional steps to undo the harm that's been done historically. 

This is a crisis, and a crisis that we can't turn away from. We can't pretend we don't see these statistics. They're right in front of us. So, we have this crisis of COVID, the illness itself.  And then within that crisis is the unimaginable suffering of people who don't have access to care or suffer at greater levels. 

We want to encourage those of us who recognize that crises are opportunities, opportunities to get this right.  For those of us who hold that vision, that this crisis is an opportunity to really dig in and get this right.  We are excited to be a part of this panel.  None of us have all the answers.  Let’s begin by wanting to be curious about what is our participation in this, and how we each bring our own gifts and talents to this population that needs more than they've been given.

Learning Objectives:

• Uncover probable causes for these disparities
• Recognize shortcomings and historical factors contributing to mistrust among various groups of people
• Discuss possible solutions
• Identify ways to help change the tide

https://www.illinoisvaccinates.com/11-reducing-disparities-preventive-medicine-part-1/
or www.illinoisvaccinates.com/podcasts

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