Generate and Teach Health Equity Routinely
In 2020, our country faced a racial reckoning. Like many organizations, the Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics released statements in support of BIPOC communities. Then, to honor our commitment to our members, community partners, and patients, WCAAP moved beyond words and created an action plan to help transform pediatric care through the lens of anti-racism. Our Equitable Care Committee, led by Peter Asante, MD, FAAP and Kathleen Kieran, MD, MSc, MME, FAAP, FACS, created an equitable health toolkit, hosts quarterly webinars, and generates monthly questions that remind us to adopt a patient-centric focus in our efforts towards equity and justice for our patients.
We are excited to introduce one more element in our anti-racism work.
GATHER (Generate And Teach Health Equity Routinely) was developed by Dr. Shaquita Bell (Senior Medical Director, Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic), the Seattle Children’s Maintenance of Certification (MOC) Program, and Seattle Children’s Center for Diversity and Health Equity to advance the equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) goals of medical providers. Since 2018, over 160 medical providers at Seattle Children’s have participated in and completed GATHER. With the use of quality improvement, self-reflection and peer discussions, GATHER continues to demonstrate improvements in medical staff’s EDI practice and behaviors.
Seattle Children’s MOC Program is collaborating with the Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (WCAAP) to spread the learning of GATHER to our statewide community. Seattle Children’s has supported WCAAP community pediatricians from across the state to help facilitate GATHER.
This learning collaborative will begin in April 2023 and sessions are open to all Washington State pediatric health care providers, including pediatricians, family physicians, and Advanced Practice Providers.
Participants will be asked to perform pre-work (readings, videos), set an intention and participate in three 1.5-hour facilitated discussions. Participants who complete these components will be eligible for MOC 4 credit.
GATHER Facilitators:
- Peter Asante, MD, FAAP
- Marcus Baca, MD, FAAP
- Annie Hoopes, MD, MPH, FAAP
- Harbir Juj, MD, MPH, FAAP
Going into GATHER, I thought I was having frequent conversations about equity and racism with patients. However, in doing the self-reflection work in the GATHER curriculum I realized that I was rarely initiating these conversations – I mostly had them when invited to the conversation by patients or parents. When further considering the power dynamics inherent in the exam room, I found myself wondering about situations where I didn’t bring up these hard topics and which patients might be impacted by my silence.
Harbir Juj, MD, MPH, FAAP
Thank you to Cambia Health Solutions and Seattle Children’s for their generous support of this program.
