Featuring Claudia Alvarado, Crystal Saavedra, John Rodriguez Roman and Maria Anderson
In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, the Alliance Almanac Editorial Board is recognizing and celebrating Hispanic professionals in our community who have made contributions in the continuing education space. We’ve asked them to provide their thoughts and experiences as well as recognize others who have also been leaders within our field.
Claudia Alvarado, Project Manager, Continuing Medical Education at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles
What can medical education do to address issues of diversity, equity, access and inclusion?
Medical education can encourage the inclusion of Hispanic healthcare providers and physicians in the planning and implementation of CME programs, as well as including community-based healthcare providers in the education programs that directly work with the Hispanic population.
What are some of the common mistakes in medical education that fail to address health disparities in communities of color?
A mistake — or more of an issue — that is rarely addressed is the access to care or the poor quality of care that communities of colors receive. This is a big issue within the Hispanic and communities of colors.
What have been some of your challenges you have faced as a person of Hispanic background in the continuing education profession?
I have been very fortunate to work with amazing people in CME, but Hispanics in the CME profession was incredibly rare when I first started in CME. I have slowly but surely started to see more Hispanic CME professionals over the past couple years. I am excited to see more nationwide and in leadership roles.
Who within the medical education industry inspires you, or who would you like to recognize as part of Hispanic Heritage Month?
I have the pleasure of knowing and working with Maria Anderson. She is the Director and Founder of the Medical Education Speakers Network (MESN). We are both currently on the Board of Directors for the Southern California Medical Education Council (SCMEC). I have learned so much from her already and her experience, networking in CME is unmatched!
Crystal Saavedra, Director of Continuing Medical Education at the City of Hope, Duarte, California
What can medical education do to address issues of diversity, equity, access and inclusion?
Medical education has the power to change people’s preconceived notions, dismantle stereotypes and provide resources. Education is a powerful tool that can teach people to demand more and healthcare providers to do more. Outcomes will improve dramatically when we begin to collaborate and work together instead of in silos. We accomplish more pooling all of our knowledge and resources than trying to discover the path alone. The puzzle of how to fix our societal issues is more easily solved when the various pieces each one has is brought together.
What are some of the common mistakes in medical education that fail to address health disparities in communities of color?
Medical education has fallen short in providing context and background allowing for stereotypes to become more prevalent. We have historically educated on diseases or conditions and not on the full picture of race, class, gender and environment. It’s important we as a society recognize that medical issues are often symptoms of systemic problems, which need to be named, confronted and educated on by healthcare professionals as well as the general public in order to eliminate and resolve so as to better treat individuals. It’s necessary for us to see people as participants of larger ecosystems that potentially exist in food deserts and have a lack of access to health screenings, all of which can lead to poor outcomes.
What have been some of your challenges you have faced as a person of Hispanic background in the continuing education profession?
There still exists a generation of healthcare providers that expect science to be divorced from experience. Patients' and individuals' experiences can be seen as unnecessary, but it’s so important for us to recognize the whole person and not just the condition or disease. Luckily, the tide is slowly shifting in this regard. We have started to value the experience of both patient and provider. Culturally, we are starting to recognize the importance and impact of difference and having balanced lives for patient and healthcare providers alike.
Who within the medical education industry inspires you, or who would you like to recognize as part of Hispanic Heritage Month?
I am constantly inspired by the women who work in medical education. They work tirelessly and often for less pay, but the mission of creating a better world for others drives our progress.
John Rodriguez Roman, CME Associate & Vice President at Southern California Medical Education Council
What can medical education do to address issues of diversity, equity, access and inclusion?
Continuing medical education helps bridge theory with practice. Through the conversations I have facilitated, moderated and lead with activity chairs and planning committees, I bring in my lived experience as well as my public health background to help shed light on some of the public health disparities that affect my community. I was born in Mexico and came to this country as baby. As a first generation immigrant, I encountered obstacles navigating the healthcare system, all of which could have been mitigated through continuing medical education. For example, I recall having to intervene as a translator for my parents on more than one occasion. As a result, I have facilitated medical education activities addressing the importance of making use of translational services. Oftentimes, clinicians are caught up in developing and attending education on traditional clinical topics addressing their respective therapeutic areas; however, there is a wide variety of public health topics that can be just as impactful to patient outcomes.
In my time at Sharp HealthCare, I helped develop an education series addressing food insecurity. This series shed light on the concept of food as medicine. For example, diabetic patients without access to food can become hypoglycemic and end up in the hospital. This education led to one of our medical groups screening patients via a text push notification that asked validated food insecurity screening questions. To date, over 8,000 patients have been screened for food insecurity. Those who were screened as food insecure were referred to services and thus were given access to the help and resources that were much needed.
I am very proud to have spearheaded this project in 2018. What made this project unique was that it was an organically developed project that was lead and coordinated by our CME department in partnership with our community benefits department and physician champions.
What are some of the common mistakes in medical education that fail to address health disparities in communities of color?
Traditional medical education can sometimes be myopic in nature and not always consider the diversity in our patient populations, particularly those who are most vulnerable. It is rewarding to know that I have had an impact in helping to address this. When I worked at Charles R. Drew University, a Historically Black Graduate Institution (HBGI), there was a fair amount of medical education highlighting topics such as cancer research within communities of color. These topics helped acknowledge the importance of addressing health disparities in communities of color. For example, studies suggesting that Black women have a higher rate of abnormal BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes which can lead to more aggressive, harder-to-treat and more likely to recur breast cancer. As a result, we were able to empower clinicians (not just physicians but promotoras and the like) to relay to their patients the importance of more frequent mammograms.
Medical education can also sometimes not account for upstream medicine, i.e., the concept that there are socioeconomic factors that contribute to healthcare issues like being food insecure. With that said, there seems to be a pendulum swing starting with updated ACCME commendation criteria that acknowledges these and many more related issues. For example, the ACCME now encourages we engage patients/public in the planning of CME activities.
What have been some challenges you have faced as a person of Hispanic background in the continuing education profession?
The CME community has been very welcoming. Everyone I have encountered has been tremendously helpful.
Who within the medical education industry inspires you, or who would you like to recognize as part of Hispanic Heritage Month?
I would really like to thank everyone who has paved the path in my career. First and foremost, I would like to thank Kenneth E. Wolf, Ph.D., and Ronald Edelstein, Ed.D. for giving me the opportunity to start my career. Annika Borvansky, MA, CHCP, for being my CME mentor at the beginning of my career. Loretta Thompson for giving me the opportunity to further develop at Sharp HealthCare and Heather Clemons for her leadership. I want to thank my colleagues at SCMEC and the many more people I have crossed paths with in CME.
Finally, I want to thank Helena Zandstra, MA, and Alison L. Silvas at UCSD as I embark on the next chapter in my CME career.
Maria Anderson, Director and Founder of the Medical Education Speakers Network (MESN)
What can medical education do to address issues of diversity, equity, access and inclusion?
I think medical education professionals are doing a great job incorporating and increasing missions to address diversity, equity and inclusion.
What are some of the common mistakes in medical education that fail to address health disparities in communities of color?
Communication may be the biggest mistake in addressing health disparities via CME programs. Not being intentional and obtaining the organization's patients' backgrounds and sharing that with faculty to prepare a lecture that can address your physicians' and patients' needs.
Who within the medical education industry inspires you, or who would you like to recognize as part of Hispanic Heritage Month?
It would be impossible to name just one medical education professional, so I tip my hat to the Southern California Medical Education Council (SCMEC) board, currently compromised of four Latinos!