RFU Action

Michael Reese Foundation Center for Health Equity Research

We need look no further than some of our closest communities to see health and healthcare inequity related to race, ethnicity and income.

Our new Michael Reese Foundation Center for Health Equity Research (CHER) will foster health equity-focused research collaborations that address socio-structural determinants of health and implement interventions aimed at improving health equity.

“We want to be responsive to community interests and needs around health equity and also to be a resource for the community and for RFU students and faculty,” said social epidemiologist and CHER Founding Director Amanda Simanek, PhD, MPH. “We know people and community-based organizations are already involved in health equityrelated efforts. We hope to provide research tools that help them translate data into action to further achieve measurable objectives and outcomes.”

Addressing health equity by building trust in science and boosting skills in science literacy is also key to the work of CHER. Dr. Simanek, a trusted voice on COVID-19, is a founding member of an all-women team of researchers and clinicians who contribute to Dear Pandemic, a social-media outreach initiative. She aims to collaborate with other trusted messengers in Lake County who are eager to promote health within their community.

“We want to equip people with the ability to talk about and understand scientific information,” Dr. Simanek said. “I want to support trusted messengers so they can better navigate and then translate scientific information to their friends and neighbors in ways that can have immediate impact on improving health and health equity.”

In another of many efforts to help people understand health care, students and faculty who work in support of RFU’s Interprofessional Community Clinic for the uninsured are partnering with the non-profit, equity-focused North Chicago Think Tank. The collaboration includes a process founder William Coleman calls “demystification,” which features campus tours for city residents that provide exposure to labs and health and learning technology. The partners have co-developed infographics on blood pressure and asthma. Think Tank participants learn by sharing their own experience of health care. One micro-action involved a chat about pulse oximeters.

“We heard from older people who were so glad to get that information,” Mr. Coleman said. “They recognized the device from doctor visits, but they didn’t know what it was. A lot of people who face barriers, whether that’s language or lack of education or lack of trust, don’t feel comfortable in healthcare settings. We’re working to listen to people in the community and get their authentic feedback on what it means to engage with medicine and science.” X

Philanthropic Response

Michael Reese Research and Education Foundation

First-year Chicago Medical School students Angelica Arzuaga and Kelly Harris, both born and raised in Chicago, want to pull down the barriers their communities face in accessing quality health care. As RFU’s inaugural Michael Reese Research and Education Foundation Scholars, they will get that chance.

Ms. Arzuaga, a former EMT and medical assistant, has been pushing up against those barriers since she was 8 years old and served as a translator for her grandfather’s medical visits and hospitalizations. Again and again, across the next 20 years, she saw people in her community delay medical attention until their conditions grew severe.

“Patient adherence is not a patient issue,” Ms. Arzuaga said. “It’s a system issue. We have to really listen to the needs of our patients to provide the care that they need. The cultural component, the language, empathy and connection — that’s what I can bring to medicine.”

Mr. Harris, the father of three grown children and a former lead technician with AT&T, recalls daylong waits at neighborhood clinics and a pervasive lack of knowledge in his community around health maintenance including nutrition and exercise.

“I want to raise awareness and improve knowledge about the importance of good health — our most important resource,” he said. “I want to provide people in minority communities the best possible care in all aspects of their lives; to help build a system where patients aren’t coming to a stranger, but a family partner who cares so much that people can feel that care.”

The scholars program, which is providing $500,000 in tuition scholarships for students underrepresented in medicine, reflects RFU’s continuing pursuit of philanthropic support to help diversify the healthcare workforce to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse nation.

“We’re working to provide access to groups that historically have lacked opportunity and who are interested in working with populations and communities that are underserved,” said CMS Associate Dean for Admissions Michael Ellison, EdD. “We want to look at applicants holistically, based on their lived experiences.”

“Scholarship support is important to continue to diversify the medical community,” said William Chamberlin, MD, board chair of the foundation, which is also prioritizing health equity through $900,000 in seed funding for the Michael Reese Foundation Center for Health Equity Research at RFU.

The foundation wants to make sure scholars are nurtured into leadership positions within the medical community.

“The more diversified the medical community becomes at leadership levels,” Dr. Chamberlin said, “the more likely we are not just to diversify our workforce, but to bring diversity into decision-making that results in high-quality care for everyone.” X