Poverty & Health

In Rural Kentucky, a Surprising Twist on the Health Debate (2009) | Frank Browning, Kaiser Health News – Models of health care in places like Hazard that could prove instructive to rebuilding healthy communities across the nation, both rural and urban.

The Underserved Pathway – Supports medical students and residents interested in working in underserved rural, urban and international communities and with underserved populations. The Underserved Pathway provides an array of mentorship, academic and experiential activities. The core curriculum is web-based and includes the following eight modules: Who Are the Underserved; Patients with HIV/AIDS; Medicare 101; Race, Ethnicity & Healthcare; People with Disabilities; Chronic Poverty; and Intimate Partner & Domestic Violence. Administered by the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

A Guide to Community-Campus Partnerships for the Health of People Experiencing Homelessness (2004) | National Health Care for the Homeless Council, Community-Campus Partnerships for Health

Medical Management of Vulnerable & Underserved Patients  (2006) | King Jr TE, Wheeler M, Fernandez A, Schillinger D, Bindman A, Grumbach K, Villela T| McGraw-Hill | Lange Medical Books – This fairly comprehensive text offers the background and practical knowledge required to teach health care professionals to care for vulnerable populations, both at the individual and the systems level. Well organized and easy to read, the book is in three sections: Principles, practice and populations. Many of the chapters address issues of particular concern to homeless health care providers: Case management, multidisciplinary care models, promoting medical adherence and behavior change, mobile outreach, caring for alcohol and drug users, and caring for oneself while caring for others. Each chapter contains specific objectives as well as discussion questions and resources that can be practical for physician-educators.

Not All of Us are Saints: A Doctor’s Journey with the Poor (1994) | Hilfiker D | Hill & Wang, New York, 2004.

Relevant Articles

• Access to Affordable Dental Care: Gaps for Low-Income Adults (2008) | Kaiser Family Foundation
• Doran KM, Kirley K, Barnosky AR, Williams JC, Cheng JE. Developing a Novel Poverty in Healthcare Curriculum for Medical Students at the University of Michigan Medical School. Academic Medicine, 83(1):5-13, 2008.

• Gregg J, Solotaroff R, Amann T, Michael Y, Bowen J. Health and Disease in Context: A Community-Based Social Medicine Curriculum. Academic Medicine, 83(1):14-19,  2008.
• Mohan CP and Mohan A. HealthSTAT: A Student Approach to Building Skills Needed to Serve Poor Communities. Journal of Health Care for the Poor & Underserved, 18:523-531, 2007.
• Farah MJ, Shera DM, Savage JH, Betancourt L,  Giannetta JM, Brodsky NL, Malmud EK, Hurt H. Childhood poverty: Specific associations with neurocognitive development. Brain Research, 1110(1):166-174, 2006.
• Subramanian SV, Kawachi I. Income inequality & health: What have we learned so far? Epidemiologic Reviews, 26:78-91, 2004.
• Candib LM, Gelberg L. How Will Family Physicians Care for the Patient in the Context of Family and Community? Family Medicine, 33(4):298-310, 2001.

Additional Resources

• Addressing the Health Needs of the Underserved | University of California, San Diego School of Medicine
• A People’s History of Poverty in America (2008) | Stephen Pimpare | New Press

• National Poverty Center | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan

• Oregon Health & Science University & Central City Concern Partner to Improve Health Care Access for Homeless -  The Social Medicine Curriculum is a collaboration between Central City Concern (CCC) and the Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics in the Department of Medicine. The curriculum rotates residents through CCC’s Old Town Clinic, a primary care clinic serving mostly homeless and low-income patients. Residents learn how to better recognize and accommodate the unique social factors that can impact the health of homeless individuals. Simultaneously, the model expands clinical capacity at the Clinic by bringing in new providers and training future safety net physician work force.
• Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor (2003) | Paul Farmer with a foreword by Amartya Sen | University of California Press
• Poverty in America: Economic Research Shows Adverse Impacts on Health Status and Other Social Conditions as well as the Economic Growth Rate (2007) | US Government Accountability Office Report to Congressional Requesters

• Program in Medical Education for the Urban Underserved | Introduction to Poverty Medicine | University of California San Francisco, School of Medicine
• The Social Medicine Portal: An Alternative to Corporate Health | Family and Social Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University
• Together on the Edge: Homeless Health Care and Medical Student Education (2007) | Tanya Page | Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, Predoctoral Education Conference Audiotape
• Underserved Populations Area of Concentration | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine – Includes learning objectives, program components, resources and evaluation criteria

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