Advocacy
As a future physician-scientist I believe it is important to be engaged and involved in my community advocating for improvements to my institutions and community.
Projects
Healthcare Equality Index
Every year, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) sends medical institutions the Healthcare Equality Index Survey, which rates them on the quality of their LGBT-patient-oriented policies. These policies include issues such as patient non-discrimination policies, visitation policies, training in LGBT patient-centered care, and employment non-discrimination policies. In addition to rating the institutions, the HRC also engages and advised the institutions on how they can improve their LGBT policies and thereby improve their HEI score. HRC additionally provides free webinars on training and LGBT policies for participating institutions.
In 2011, upon learning that the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) did not participate in the survey, I petitioned the administration to become involved. The UCMC was included in the HEI's 2012 survey results, and began to actively engage in reviewing its LGBT policies.
The UCMC has continued to participate in the HEI survey, and due to the continued advocacy of a student group in Pritzker's Health Care Disparities class, in 2015 the UCMC was awarded Leader in LGBT Healthcare Equality status. After convincing UCMC to participate, I worked to covince other medical institutions in the Chicago area to participate as well. I have been communicating with students at other Chicago medical schools as well as administration at local government and community-centered institutions to become involved, which I hope will illuminate their strengths as health care providers, lead to an improvement in their policies, and increase the quality of care for their entire patient population.
In 2015, I won the University of Chicago Jane Morton and Henry C. Murphy Award for Student Leadership for my advocacy work with the HEI at the UCMC.
In 2016, my and the Health Care Disparities group's advocacy was feathered in Medicine on the Midway. The link to the article can be found here.
Prescription Drug Repositories
I am currently involved in an advocacy project to pass legislation to legalize Prescription Drug Repositories in Illinois. They allow for the donation, reuse, and redistribution of unused, unopened, and unexpired prescription medications to un- and underinsured individuals. Iowa has a very robust and successful program, and I see no reason why we can't have a similar program in Illinois.
I have devoted a separate webpage to this topic, also found in the menu in the upper right of this page.
Crisis Intervention Training
In 2015 I led a Pritzker Health Care Disparities student group examining the implementation of Crisis Intervention Training among UChicago Police Department officers. This training equips officers with the skills and approach necessary for interacting with community members suffering from mental illness.
Broadly, we found that such training was hampered by a lack of funds and training opportunities due to the Illinois Budget impasse, and such training was also rendered less effective by a lack of locations where community members who interacted with officers could be taken for their mental health needs.
School-based Health Centers
In 2017 I drafted a proposal to explore the role of School-based Health Centers (SBHCs) in Chicago schools, with particular interest in the comparison of student populations at schools with SBHC with the student population at the UChicago Chater School Network.