Established by the MDisability Program in 2019, the Disability Health Elective (DHE) has reached out to medical students across the country much in the same way that its summer internship has brought disability research and care education to graduate-level or rising medical school students just starting out into the world of disability health.
The DHE is a two-week course (FAMMED 8204) and is designed for medical students in the various educational branches to rotate among different clinics specializing in disability-based care (e.g., Deaf Health, Adaptive Sports Medicine, Spinal Cord Injury, Cerebral Palsy, Low Vision, etc.). The course is offered in January, April and September.
Students are introduced to elements of disability theory, clinical practice, disability law, and implications for policy. The course also incorporates small group discussions and online training with the MI-Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (MI-LEND) program, based at Wayne State University in Detroit.
“The overarching goal of the DHE course is to enable medical students to be able to provide a person-centered approach to caring for patients who have different types of disabilities,” said Michael M. McKee, MD, MPH, professor and director of MDisabiity. “This effort has been designed to improve the quality of care and reduce disparities in health outcomes for people with disabilities.
Upon completion, the students also receive a Michigan Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (MI-LEND) certificate. MI-LEND is an interdisciplinary leadership training program that prepares emerging professionals from multiple disciplines to help improve the health of infants, children, and adolescents with or at risk for neurodevelopmental disabilities and other related health care needs. It introduces trainees to concepts, models, and best practices for working with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and other neurodevelopmental disabilities.
“Medical students benefit from this training ... by seeing how cultural and linguistic competence can enhance the way they provide care,” said Michael Bray, MI-LEND training director at WSU’s Michigan Developmental Disabilities Institute. “They also see how intersectional identities – including disability – contribute to the unique situations that patients with disabilities can and will be in as they seek care.
“Overall, these experiences prepare medical professionals to be more competent and effective when working with this patient group,” he added.
Over the past five years, 17 U-M students and seven visiting students have gone through the MDisability DHE and MI-LEND training. Sherri Eldin, DO, MFA, is a physician with disabilities who participated in the elective in 2023. Eldin said that interacting with McKee, as well as with other clinicians at U-M such as Cory Wernimont, MD, a spinal cord injury specialist and lead Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation physician with U-M’s Multiple Sclerosis Clinic, as well as and Brianna Marzolf, DO, MDisability’s first Disability Health fellow, was an unforgettable experience that has informed her work moving forward.
“I’ve known for a long time that I wanted my career as a physician to be focused towards helping others with disabilities, (and) doing a DHE as a fourth-year medical student was a part of that plan,” said Eldin, who is now a resident intern in the Department of Family & Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York. She also continues her work in disability advocacy, primarily through her roles within the Institute of Exceptional Care, which is based in Washington, D.C.
“I had known about MDisability for some time — there’s really no other program quite like it — and so the elective had been on my radar,” she added. “I live in this unique intersection within the field of Disability Health where I am a patient and a physician, and I want to use that dual identity as best as I can to create a better landscape for others with disabilities. Simply put, (the DHE) showed me the possibilities that are out there in this field.”
The DHE will welcome two new students in January 2025.
