Urban Medicine and Health Care Disparities Scholarly Concentration

Why did you choose to participate in the Urban Medicine and Health Care Disparities Scholarly Concentration, and how do you expect your participation to help guide your career in medicine?

Studying medicine at the Gary campus comes with a unique opportunity to integrate economics, sociology, politics, health care, science and a variety of other disciplines into medical education. The Urban Medicine and Health Care Disparities Scholarly Concentration program helped me consider how a patient's environment and circumstances affect their health and why they may develop a given condition before presenting to the doctor. My participation in this scholarly concentration has given me a deeper appreciation for public health and the value of preventing illness before needing to treat it.

What scholarly project have you chosen to undertake and why?

We did a project with a local organization that's called Operation Combat Bikesaver – a nonprofit organization that tries to do what they call “Hot Rod therapy.” They work with veterans, and they basically offer this healthy outlet for them to come and build motorcycles. And then through that, they also offer more formal connections to healthcare and psychiatric care as well as peer support groups.

So we did a research study with them sort of as a community-based participatory research study to analyze and review the effects that this program has had on veterans in the Northwest–Gary area. That project was important to me because I'm in the Air Force, so I'm doing the Health Professions Scholarship Program. What I wanted to do, since I'm sort of removed from that patient population right now, was get exposure to and learn better ways to help that population while I'm in medical school and still learning.

How has participating in the Urban Medicine and Health Care Disparities Scholarly Concentration shaped your medical school journey?

It's definitely given me a broader understanding of all the other things patients face before they can actually address just really baseline medical needs. A lot of the Scholarly Concentration focuses on psychiatric care and barriers to care, so it’s shaped the way I think about the patient experience between the patient being in the office or in the hospital and at home. What it takes for them to go from at home to in the hospital or in the office were things I just really hadn't considered as much, so the Concentration helped my understanding of what are the barriers to care for various patients. 

Why did you choose to participate in the Urban Medicine and Health Care Disparities Scholarly Concentration program?

As a Muslim woman of color born to refugee and immigrant parents, serving minority communities that are disproportionately impacted by health inequity has always been a priority of mine. The Urban Medicine and Health Care Disparities Scholarly Concentration at IU School of Medicine-Northwest-Gary offered an unparalleled pathway to gain greater understanding of health disparities in an urban setting through research and clinical experiences with the diverse patient population I hope to serve in the future.

How will your participation in this scholarly concentration contribute to your overall career aspirations in medicine?

Participating in the Urban Medicine and Health Care Disparities Scholarly Concentration has helped develop my independent research skills and has vastly expanded my knowledge of public health and patient-centered, community-based health initiatives. As an aspiring emergency medicine physician, these areas of knowledge are critical as emergency departments often serve the primary care needs of underserved communities.