Now Is the Time: A Primer on How to Be a Disability Education Champion in Your Medical School.

ABSTRACT: One in four noninstitutionalized adults in the United States lives with a disability. People with disabilities have frequent interactions with the medical community and the healthcare system yet experience disparities in access and outcomes. The Association of American Medical Colleges has included disability in its definition of diversity as one of the aspects of patient care that may affect health equity. However, training in the lived experience of disability is not always included in medical education. Physiatrists make excellent disability champions in medical schools, given their training and experience in the care of individuals with disabilities. Here, we describe strategies for physiatrists to increase disability education in medical schools and an overview of standards and tools (Liaison Committee on Medical Education standards; Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation standards; International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health language; and the Core Competencies on Disability for Health Care Education published by the Alliance for Disability in Health Care Education) physiatrists can use to facilitate interactions with medical school educational leadership. Specific examples are provided along with a framework to guide the development of disability champions in medical schools.

Competency-Based Curriculum Development to Meet the Needs of People With Disabilities: A Call to Action.

People with disabilities constitute 22.2% of the population in the United States, and virtually all physicians have people with disabilities in their clinical practice across a wide range of diagnostic groups. However, studies demonstrate that people with disabilities are inadequately served by the health care system, leading to high costs and poor outcomes. The authors argue that one cause of this discrepancy is that medical students receive limited training in the care of people with disabilities and may therefore not be able to adequately meet the competencies that underlie the Core Entrustable Professional Activities for Entering Residency. To address these gaps, the authors present practical examples of integrating concepts of disability into the curriculum with minimal additional time requirements. A comprehensive disability curriculum is suggested to include active classroom learning, clinical, and community-based experiences. At institutions that do not have a comprehensive curriculum, the authors recommend adding disability-related knowledge and skill acquisition to existing curricula through modifications to current case-based learning, simulated patients, and objective structured clinical examinations. To facilitate curriculum development, they recommend that the World Health Organization International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health be used as a tool to build disability concepts into active learning. The goal of these recommended curricular changes is to enhance student performance in the clinical management of people with disabilities and to better train all future physicians in the care of this population.