ABSTRACT
In recent years, health disparity has become more obvious and people from diverse backgrounds suffer from various kinds of problems. It is crucial to foster doctors who can respond to social needs. I participated in a five-week elective course during his 3rd year of Juntendo University School of Medicine (2015). The course focused on health inequity and social determinants of health (SDH). As a student, I found it extremely important for medical students to learn about SDH. In this report, I will share my experiences as a junior doctor to reflect on what I learned then and how that affects my practice.
ABSTRACT
In the Model Core Curriculum for Medical Education revised in 2016, the aim to teach "social determinants of health (SDH) " appeared for the first time. In times of social disparity, socio-economic conditions, including unemployment and low income, sometimes discourage people from doing follow up visits to the clinic due to the copay. This happens despite the universal coverage of health insurance. The socio-cultural environment also affects individual health. For example, the sexual minority suffers from depression and suicidal risk due to prejudice in our society. The WHO states that SDH are mostly responsible for health inequities and should be tackled by health professionals. In this article, we discuss why we should teach medical students SDH and how we could implement the program to an already overloaded curricula.