Getting to Know You

By Corrinne Fahl

October 16, 2017 | by Greg Richter

Starting today, Penn Medicine hospitals in Philadelphia are asking patients to share more information in their EHRs. For example, in addition to reporting their sex at birth, patients are now offered the opportunity to provide specific information about their gender identity and sexual orientation, as well as their ethnicity and preferred spoken and written language. The first such update in 10 years, the changes follow national Healthy People 20/20 recommendations as well as the Institute of Medicine (National Academy of Medicine) National Academies report on what to collect on patients' background and characteristics. Knowing…

Celebrating 100 years of women in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania during Women in Medicine Month

By Corrinne Fahl

In honor of Women in Medicine month, and the anniversary of Dr. Clara Hillesheim’s graduation, the Office of Inclusion and Diversity and the Penn Special Interest Group in Health Disparities and Health Equity hosted two former United States Surgeons General, to share their experiences.

Keeping Efforts to Build a More Inclusive Culture in the Forefront

By Corrinne Fahl

Keeping Efforts to Build a More Inclusive Culture in the Forefront

Eve J. Higginbotham SM, MD

A recent editorial written by former Treasury Secretary James Baker and former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young in the Wall Street Journal, reminded us about the fundamental core values that we share as Americans. The authors provided a few historical touch points in addition to suggested paths forward as we aim to rekindle our shared purpose as a nation.  There was one specific phrase that stood out in particular: scripted more than 200 years ago, the enduring Latin phrase, "e pluribus unum", out of…

Penn Med Students Create App to Address LGBTQ Health Disparities Read - Phillymag

By Corrinne Fahl

SpectrumScores aims to connect LGBTQ patients with the right providers to cater to their unique needs.

Three University of Pennsylvania medical students have created an app that they hope will put an end to LGBTQ healthcare disparities.

SpectrumScores, being developed by Phil Williams, Jun Jeon, and Naveen Jain, plans to connect LGBTQ patients with the right providers to meet their unique needs. The concept came from the team's shared negative experiences with providers they described as "well-meaning but under-informed" coupled with their understanding of "how much of a significant impact an LGBTQ competent provider can make."

"SpectrumScores isn't just…

A Principled Man - The Pennsylvania Gazette

By Corrinne Fahl

When Nathan Mossell crossed the stage of Philadelphia’s Academy of Music to receive his medical diploma in the spring of 1882, his white peers saluted him with “almost deafening applause,” he wrote in his short autobiography. As an honor student graduating in the top quarter of his class, Mossell had triumphed over the virulent racism displayed by many of his classmates and professors. But now, with diploma in hand, Penn’s first black doctor gazed out upon the cheering young men, confident that despite the formidable odds he would surely face, his talent and persistence would enable him to triumph.…

H. Moses Murdock Presented his poster at the Annual Medical Education Conference

By Corrinne Fahl

H. Moses Murdock presented his poster entitled "Ranking Diversity: Quantifying UME Ethnic Diversity at Academic Medical Centers" at the Annual Medical Education Conference, held by the Student National Medical Association. 

Mr. Murdock:

• Graduated summa cum laude from the University of Central Florida with Bachelor of Science Degree in Molecular Biology and Microbiology.
• Is a recipient of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Gamble Scholar Merit Scholarship.
• Served on the Diversity & Inclusion Student Advisory Council and Student's Opposing Racism at Penn (S.T.O.R.M.)
• Is a member of the SNMA Executive Board
• Wishes to continue research and provide care for underserved communities as…

Two Members of Penn Community Named “40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health

By Corrinne Fahl

The National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF) has honored two members of the Penn community with its 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health award, which recognizes the next generation of thought leaders in reducing healthcare disparities. Paris Butler, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of Plastic Surgery in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and Kevin Ahmaad Jenkins, PhD, the vice-provost’s postdoctoral fellow in the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, will both receive their awards at the NMQF Leadership Summit on Health Disparities and Congressional Black Caucus…

Novello Inspires Action at 2017 Penn Health Equity Symposium

By Corrinne Fahl

AUTHOR: Janet Weiner, PhD, MPH and Nastasha Galperin 'No time for apathy or complacency'

Penn's third annual Martin Luther King Jr. Health Equity Symposium featured a keynote address by Antonia Novello, 14^th Surgeon General of the United States, who had a hopeful, yet challenging message: "Had Martin Luther King been here today, he would see that we are doing much better, but he would he would still be fighting. He would feel pride, disappointment, sadness, and he would be appalled that blacks and whites are still segregated."

Read more at Penn's Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics.

Celebrating Black History Month and Dr. Nathan Mossell

By Corrinne Fahl

Dr. Francis Nathan Mossell was the first African American to receive a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Nathan Francis Mossell, the son of Aaron and Eliza Bowers Mossell, was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada on July 27, 1856. Nathan's father, Aaron Mossell, was a grandson of slaves, with a great-grandfather known to have been brought from West Africa. His wife Eliza came from a free Black family that had been deported to Trinidad with other such families when she was a child; she and Aaron met after she returned to Baltimore. During the Civil War, Aaron Mossell resettled…

A letter to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. From Cristo Rey Student T. Powell

By Corrinne Fahl

The Office of Inclusion and Diversity is working with the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice to sponsor a student from Cristo Rey High School for the 2016-17 school year. T. Powell, a senior at Cristo Rey, wrote the following letter to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as we celebrate his life and work with our annual Health Equity Symposium.

Dear Dr. King,

I’m accepted. Not in all places, but I am welcomed. I can say that you were off to a good start, but the job is not finished. Your letters and the March on Washington…

2017 Martin Luther King, Jr. Health Equity Symposium

By Corrinne Fahl

The Office of Inclusion and Diversity would like to thank everyone who was able to attend any of our events yesterday, as we honored Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s commitments and contributions to Health Equity. We were so happy to be able to bring Dr. Novello to share her experience and guidance, and Dr. Evans' passion for the necessity for equity in the field of oral health was truly inspiring. We hope to see an enthusiastic turn out next year, when Dr. Howard Koh will be our keynote speaker.

View the entirety of the symposium, available to stream. 

The…